Remembering Ernie Pyle

(Ie Shima, Okinawa, Japan) From the Stars and Stripes comes this story by David Allen.

About a hundred people gathered on this tiny island off the northwest coast of Okinawa on Sunday to remember a newsman who brought war home in the most personal terms.

Ernie Pyle, a reporter who eschewed the safety of command posts and made a niche for himself in the foxholes of the frontline troops during World War II, died 59 years ago on his way to another battle.

As he rode in a jeep to what passed as the front in a ferocious battle for the island's airstrip during the Battle of Okinawa, a Japanese machine gunner sprayed the vehicle. The jeep jammed to a stop and Pyle and the other passengers scrambled out, diving for ditches on either side of the dirt road.

When the shooting stopped, Pyle raised his head to ask a friend on the other side of the road if he was all right. A sniper's bullet caught him in the head.

Read by millions, Ernie Pyle reported on WWII from the front lines and was so beloved by the GIs that the soldiers in the unit he covered erected a monument at the place he was killed.

It says, simply: "On this spot the 77th Infantry Division lost a Buddy. Ernie Pyle, 18 April 1945."

According to Marine Brig. Gen. Frank A. Panter, commanding general of the 3rd Force Service Support Group, "Ernie Pyle was the gold standard for the other combat correspondents." Attributed to Gen. Omar Bradley is the statement that 'My men always fight better when Ernie's around.' And today's soldiers have benefited from Pyle's work also. It was largely due to his front line columns that Congress passed a bill granting them combat pay.

John Steinbeck once said that there are really two wars, one with armies and campaigns and

"Then there is the war of the homesick, weary, funny, violent, common men who wash their socks in their helmets, complain about the food, whistle at the Arab girls, or any girls for that matter, and bring themselves through as dirty a business as the world has ever seen and do it with humor and dignity and courage - and that is Ernie Pyle's war."

It's important to remember Ernie Pyle for his service to freedom, democracy, and America. And, it's important to remember the warmth he placed in the hearts of American families while their sons and daughters were fighting and dying. There were other fine American war correspondents during WWII, but Ernie Pyle set the standard.

Where are the American war correspondents in Iraq?