WWII soldier offers new perspective on Ernie Pyle’s death

A dangerous and ultimately tragic order may have led to the death of World War II reporter and IU alumnus Ernie Pyle, said one World War II veteran.\nAnthony Stanis, who was with the Army’s 305th regiment when it captured the island of Ie Shima, said that on April 18, 1945 he was ordered by Col. Joseph Coolidge, the 305th commander, to round up his men. Coolidge said he was going to take Pyle to see the 2nd Battalion fight in an attack he had ordered.\nThis differs from the popular account, in which Coolidge took Pyle to find a new command post.\nStanis said as a rule, he needed four hours to round up his men. The colonel gave him a “one-second order,” so he was only able to locate a few of his men.\nStanis said he didn’t like what he saw Pyle wearing that day. He said Pyle was dressed in clean khakis because he was headed home. All of the soldiers were filthy.\n“Japs love any targets that look different,” Stanis said. \nStanis also said he didn’t see Pyle with a helmet, although he said it’s possible he could have had helmet with him. \nHowever, Owen V. Johnson, an associate journalism professor at IU who wrote a book about Ernie Pyle, said Pyle was not yet going home. He said in the recently discovered death photo of Pyle he was clearly not wearing khaki pants. \n“To me, that’s clearly fatigues,” Johnson said. \nJohnson said Pyle often didn’t wear the standard uniform, but a lot of soldiers didn’t wear exactly the standard uniform. \nHe also said Pyle didn’t like to wear the helmet and usually wore a cloth cap. But even if he was wearing a helmet, as previous accounts indicate, it wouldn’t have made a difference.\n“Just like any type of body protection, it’s not going to be perfect,” he said. “In the death photo, Pyle is wearing a helmet but has the cloth hat in his hands.”\nStanis rounded up some of his men and started putting them into Jeeps. One Jeep held Coolidge, an intelligence officer and Pyle. Stanis said he had no idea where the 2nd Battalion was and that Coolidge didn’t seem to know exactly, either. \n“He put my life on the line,” Stanis said of Coolidge. \nTheir location on Ie Shima was completely open, so there was little opportunity for cover. The Japanese pinned the American soldiers down in the weeds. Stanis said going into the area was “foolish.”\nStanis said the Jeeps started down the path toward the front lines going about five miles per hour. He claimed his Jeep went about 10 yards before it was fired on by a machine gun. All the occupants of the Jeeps jumped into the ditch on the side of the road. \nStanis said the machine-gun fire was coming down on them, so it wasn’t as deadly as it could have been if it was level with the Jeeps. Stanis said he estimates he tried to move after about 15 minutes from his position and the gunner shot at him, but missed. After 30 minutes the intelligence officer managed to make his way over to tell him that Pyle had been killed. \nJohnson said while Pyle was always anxious to see what was happening in the war, he was somewhat cautious. He said Pyle had a reputation for being in foxholes, but not when firing was going on.\nJohnson said part of being a wartime journalist was being near the action, but not part of the action. \n“The challenge then and is still the case now is what is the best place to be to write a story,” he said. \nStanis’s nephew Tom Lutz said Stanis has been telling this story since Lutz was in high school, although he only recently heard the whole version.\n“He’s been telling this story since the 40s,” Lutz said. \nAfter a few hours of hiding in the ditch, Stanis said he thinks someone killed the machine-gunner. He crawled back to the foxhole. Stanis said he couldn’t worry about Pyle even though he was well liked by him and his men because people died in the war every day. \n“You’ve got to concentrate on trying to live,” he said.