ANOTHER EAGLE HAS SOARED

Today I received the sad news that ED MAUSER passed away January 21nd. at the age of 94.

Just a few weeks ago he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

During the predawn hours of D-Day and the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France, Mauser parachuted into France together with the 101st Airborne Division's 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
He was a rifleman in the 2nd Platoon of E  Company.

Mauser was a retired watchmaker who lived in relative obscurity for more than six decades after World War II.
Easy Company's story was chronicled in Stephen Ambrose's 1993 best-selling book "Band of Brothers" and a 10-part television miniseries in 2001. Writers for the miniseries interviewed Mauser, but he wasn't personally featured. 
Easy Company veterans soon were feted at conventions, reunions and tours across the country and in Europe. But Mauser didn't make those trips. His wife, Irene, was ill during much of the period, and he didn't leave her side. She died in 2008. 
Mauser's daughter, Laurie Fowler of Belle vue, said his dedication to his wife exemplified the meanings of love and marriage. She said her father rarely talked of his war experiences until revealing he was an Easy Company veteran.
"I got to see dad in a new light," she said. "I got to see how he became the person he was, not just because of the Depression, but the war."

He was on the final Heartland Honor Flight to the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., in April 2009. 
Then he stepped from the shadows of history as an Easy Company paratrooper - a veteran of the Band of Brothers - in a World-Herald story during the Fourth of July weekend in 2009.
The next 18 months were a whirlwind of remembrance and celebration for Mauser. He was in demand to attend military reunions and tours across the United States and Western Europe. 
He made two trips to Europe, following Easy Company's trail from its training base in England to places where he fought and bivouacked in Normandy, Holland and Belgium and on into Germany and Austria.

Mauser said the highlights of his recent trips to Europe were the people he met.
"He said he now has more friends than he ever had," his daughter said. "His friends brought him so much joy. Through it all, my dad remained humble and proud. My dad is a hero to me and my family in so many ways." 

Thirteen months ago, the Strategic Air & Space Museum near Ashland, Neb., brought in Mauser and five other Easy Company veterans for a Band of Brothers gathering. It was Mauser's first reunion with Army buddies since the war ended in 1945. He also attended Band of Brothers events in Philadelphia, Las Vegas and Florida. 
Last spring he received a second Bronze Star, a second Purple Heart and 10 other overdue awards and pins for his military service from 1942 to 1945. He was a special guest at Omaha's Memorial Day ceremonies. 
His final hurrah was riding in a Corvette as grand marshal of Bellevue's Veterans Day Parade in November. 

We will never forget what Ed and his buddies did for us in 1944.

In our thoughts and prayers we are with his family.

THANK YOU ED.

REST IN PEACE.

CURRAHEE

watch Ed on YouTube

Text by David Hendee (World Herald)