JACKSON – It was 21 years ago that the devastating attack on America struck New York City and like many outside the city who were called in to help, Township Police Captain John McBride will never forget what he witnessed.
McBride was born in the Bronx before his family moved to Howell. He served in the Air Force and made law enforcement his career path, having recently been promoted from lieutenant to captain during a July 12 Jackson Township Council meeting.
His notable record was read before the governing body and public by Township Police Chief Matthew Kunz. McBride began his service full time with the department in 1999.
For Jackson Township’s police department, he was a uniform patrol officer from 1999 through 2005 evening shift and later, the day shift.
He was a patrol sergeant from 2005 to 2020. He supervised Alpha One and Alpha Two squads on the midnight shift for five years and did the day shift 10 years.
As a Jackson patrol lieutenant from 2020 to June of 2022 he was the patrol commander of Alpha One, Alpha Two and Charlie One squads and currently serves as detective captain of investigative services division.
The Operation Desert Storm veteran received an achievement ribbon following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. He was home and off duty on the morning of that fateful day when the call came out from the New York City Police Department for all law enforcement officers and first responders to travel to ground zero to assist in rescue and recovery efforts.
Chief Matthew Kunz said, “within a few hours McBride and two other Jackson officers “were on top of the smoldering rubble at the top of the World Trade Center where they assisted with the rescue and recovery efforts well until the midnight hour.”
“They slept in their car a few blocks away from ground zero returning to the still smoldering rubble on the morning of September 12, searching all day and evening and returning again to search again on September 13,” the chief said.
McBride is the oldest sibling in his family which has a tradition of community service. His brother Thomas is a retired NYPD lieutenant and his sister Maureen is a Howell Township police department corporal while his brother Daniel is a firefighter.
His brother Terrence is a nurse and his brother Patrick a retired occupational therapist. Patrick and Thomas McBride are veterans of Operation: Desert Storm.
McBride has two sons, Christian 12 and Liam, 11
The chief described McBride as a “very proud patriotic American, born on the 4th of July. He has been honored to serve his country in four levels of government.”
That included on the county level as a Monmouth County Sheriff’s officer in the warrant division courthouse security identification bureau and prisoner transport divisions. On the municipal level he remains serving in the Jackson Township police department.
On the federal level he served with the United States Navy as an aviation electrician on the F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft and on the state level with the New Jersey Air National Guard holding a Top-Secret SCI clearance as an intel analyst creating intelligence products for the Air Force.
McBride was cross trained as an outpost commander four years ago and deployed to the 119-fighter squadron of the 177 Fighter Wing at the Atlantic City Airport from 2018 to 2020.
Chief Kunz said that “command post is responsible for receiving orders from the Eastern Air Defense Sector to scramble F-16 fighter aircraft for any and all aerial threats between New York City and Washington D.C. to prevent another 9/11 types of attack from every happening again.”
