DENVER – Staff Sgt. Al Mampre, one of the last surviving members of the 101st Airborne’s “Easy Company” that was featured in the HBO Series “Band of Brothers” and who was featured on a Denver7 report just two weeks ago, has died, his daughter says.
SSG Mampre had just turned 97 and died Friday of natural causes after a brief illness, his daughter said.
Mampre came from Illinois to Englewood on May 17 to raise money for the U.S. Bomb Technician Association at the Inverness Golf Club.
He joined the U.S. Army at age 20 in 1942, after which he volunteered to become a paratrooper and medic. He saw combat in Operation Market Garden and several others in the European theatre of WWII.
Mampre said when interviewed in May that he and his fellow brothers were proud to serve their country and were just doing their jobs.
"Everybody in there was doing what he had to do," he said.
He became a sought-after speaker and somewhat of a celebrity after “Band of Brothers” was released in 2001.
When asked how he was so full of pep, he claimed to be a clone. He said that he had a few secrets to a long and happy life.
“Meeting a lot of nice people, having a sense of humor, be lucky enough to be in tune with what’s going on around you,” he said.
His daughter told Denver7 Friday that her father, among the last of the Greatest Generation, “lived four lifetimes.”