Remembering Ernie Pyle

After 63 years, the death photo of Ernie Pyle has surfaced, moments after he was shot and killed, the result of machine gun fire on April 18, 1945. Seeing the photo gives finality to this chapter of his life. We knew of his sudden death and burial overseas, and that’s what we were left with – clippings of his stories of the common soldier, from Europe, Africa and the Pacific. The rail-thin war correspondent gave us the harsh reality and the horrors of war. His articles were written in a folksy way and read by loyal followers in more than 300 newspapers. The newsreels gave us the pictures of war, while CBS war correspondent Edward R. Murrow reported the sounds of war, but Pyle gave us the personal side. The most touching story was the death of Captain Waskow, killed at the front line in Italy. Each of his men were affected by his death as they brought his body down on the back of a mule in the glow of the moonlight. \nPyle was born on August 3, 1900 on a farm near Dana, Indiana. After serving three months in the Navy near the end of WWI, he attended IU, where he was the editor of the Indiana Daily Student. He didn’t graduate but started writing for local newspapers until moving to Washington, DC to work as a reporter in 1923.\nPyle became a war correspondent in 1941, telling the stories of the common soldier. He slept where they did, ate with them and told of their daily lives in his columns. Ernie earned a Pulitzer in 1944, and a movie on his life was released after his death. He also wrote three books. Today we have his books, his columns, Ernie Pyle Hall on the IU campus and now this death photo that has come to light. He looks like a full length alabaster figure lying on top of the tomb of a knight. \nToday we find ourselves once again at war. Who will tell stories as Ernie Pyle did, for this new generation whose stories need to be told?