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April 18, 2007
Ernie Pyle - War Correspondent
On this day in 1945, famed American war correspondent Ernie Pyle was killed by Japanese gunfire on the Pacific island of Ie Shima, off Okinawa. He was forty-four years old.
Ernie's columns, done in foxholes, brought home all the hurt, horror, loneliness and homesickness that every soldier felt. They were the perfect supplement to the soldiers' own letters.
Though he wrote of his own feelings and his own emotions as he watched men wounded, and saw the wounded die, he was merely interpreting the scene for the soldier.
Ernie never made war look glamorous. He hated it and feared it. Blown out of press headquarters at Anzio, almost killed by our own planes at St. Lo, he told of the death, the heartache and the agony about him and always he named names of the kids around him, and got in their home town addresses.
Ernie journeyed to Iwo on a small carrier and wrote about the carrier crew. Then he moved on to Okinawa and went in with the Marines. He had post-war plans. He thought he would take to the white clean roads again and write beside still ponds in the wilderness, on blue mountains, in country lanes, in a world returned to peace and quiet. And these were the dreams of the soldiers in the foxhole as much as they were his own.
Continue reading Ernie Pyle - War Correspondent
Posted by LindaSoG at April 18, 2007 02:20 PM
Comments
That was really nice Linda, I didn't know you had those pages up there.
Posted by: Rene at April 18, 2007 03:35 PM
Excellent post Linda. Now, fast foward 60+ years in the annals of journalism. Palestinian gunmen kidnap a British BBC reporter. Conflicting reports now say he may or may not have been executed. What happens in response to this outrage? The British National Union of Journalists vote to boycott Israeli goods.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
Posted by: Vince at April 18, 2007 04:46 PM
Rene, those pages were part of my original website way back in 2002, before I moved into a blog format. I kept a few of my favorites. I'm glad you enjoyed them.
Posted by: LindaSoG at April 18, 2007 05:55 PM
Ah Vince, even today, you can't help but be moved, reading his articles. There will never be another Ernie Pyle.
The mainstream media has become the enemy of America.
Posted by: LindaSoG at April 18, 2007 05:58 PM
I must confess that I've read precious litle of his work though his home/library is near my work. Thanks, Linda for putting him on my reading list.
And Yes, the media today is the friend of America's enemies.
Posted by: mech at April 19, 2007 08:40 AM
The story and writings of Ernie Pyle were one of my favorite reads growing up. He was fantastic and the spirit of those times recognized him.
We had several good reporters in Vietnam, some of them were killed, Bernard Fall and Dickey Chapelle. But the spirit of the times would not acknowledge them.
Today we have Michael Yon and several others, incl. Pollard. The spirit of the times struggles. They would be unrecognized but for this wonderful internet.
Posted by: TomR at April 19, 2007 03:24 PM