Band of Brothers WWII

On the front page of the Omaha World Herald this morning: "A brother and a hero dead at 94.   The old man of Easy Company is gone."  

Ed Mauser of Omaha, the oldest surviving member of the 101st Airborne Division's famed Band of Brothers unit in Europe during World War II, died at his home Friday. He was 94.Mauser's death leaves 35 known living veterans of famed Easy Company.  Mauser,  parachuted into France on D-Day and fought across Europe, .  “Ed was a good soldier. He went through his share of hell,” one of the Brothers commented.

Four of  my grandmother's six brothers  were soldiers in WWI.  Two of her sisters married soldiers of that war.  The get-togethers of the extended family happened fairly often; apparently I was off playing with my cousins and missed any conversations on their war experiences. My father and my grandpa both signed up for the draft but neither were called.  My dad said he was too old and perhaps that was the case with my grandpa as well.

My own wartime hero was a teen when my parents moved into Buffalo, SD when I was a toddler. Frankie's parents rented a small house to us and he lived with his parents in the house next door. Frank enlisted in the Army Air Corps, trained as a navigator, and was assigned to a bomber crew, flying B-24 Liberators on combat missions out of Italy. His bomber was shot down over Germany and he was a prisoner of war for six months.

Frank gave me a book he wrote called Five Combat Missions: Then Fifty More, in which he states "Like people featured in Tom Bowkaw's popular book,   The Greatest Generation, World War II was one of the "defining moments" of my life. 

The last time we saw Frank, he was one of the Military Honor Guards at my cousin's funeral.