Posted on 03/27/2008 8:43:28 PM PDT by posterchild
To cover the soldiers of War War II, Ernie Pyle became one of them. He was the most acclaimed news correspondent of the war. Even at age 40 when the war started, Pyle (1900-45) lived among the men he covered and wrote home to their loved ones about. His column for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain ran six times a week and was read by millions. His work was so popular because he subjected himself to the same lifestyle and similar dangers as the U.S. soldiers — from North Africa to Italy, France and the Pacific. "I am no longer content unless I am with soldiers in the field," Pyle wrote to a friend after a stint in London before D-Day, June 6, 1944. For him, joining soldiers was the only way he could understand them. Danger was the price he was willing to pay to do his job. "The frontline soldier I knew lived for months like an animal, and was a veteran in the cruel, fierce world of death. Everything was abnormal and unstable in his life," Pyle wrote in his 1943 best-seller, "Brave Men." "There's no doubt that Pyle did expose himself to danger over and over and over again by not only going close to the front lines, but staying there for days on end," James Tobin, author of "Ernie Pyle's War: America's Eyewitness to World War II," told IBD.
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I once had a war time copy of “Brave Men” that my brother stole from me.
I’ve got an ancient one that I inherited from my father. I should check the date.
Michael Yon is our times’ Ernie Pyle. The fact that he will never be considered for a Pulitzer or other journalism prize is as severe an indictment of the modern journalism edifice as can be made.
BTT for THE war correspondent, Ernie Pyle.
BTW, I believe that Michael Yon goes beyond Pyle....Michael Yon was publishing in a harsh, antiwar environment and never caved....Pyle was different—the American Public actually wanted to hear positive news..
If Jane Fonda and John Kerry wrote a book on their activities during the Vietnam War, they would get a Pulitzer prize.
Bump that.
I've got the book and seen the plaque on Ie Shima.
BTT for Pyle and Yon.
I did too. Read it the summer of 1959, I believe. I have no idea whatever happened to it. I remember how most of the dads on the block were WWII vets. Heros all.
Nam Vet
Although they lived sixty years and a lifetime apart, Ernie Pyle and Michael Yon probably would have been as tight as Willie and Joe. Ernie would have invited Michael to sit down for a cup of joe while they traded stories about the things they have seen, the people they have met, and the places they have been.
I have a war time copy of brave men. Very good condition, with an old bookmark. Who’s your brother? ;) I found the book amongst a collection my parents had given me years previous. I had no idea who he was, what the book was about, and had studied very little of WWII outside of basic school work. I devoured that book, bought The Longest Day, Bradley’s bio, Patton’s bio, Marshall’s bio, a lengthy Hitler work, plus numerous others and just buried myself for a few months in WWII. Brave men indeed...
BTW, I checked, it’s a first edition. Has “2LT < my dad’s name>” written inside the front cover, in neat block draftman’s printing. Dad was about 12 when WWII ended, so I’m thinking maybe one of his uncles gave it to him. Don’t know the story there, but several served, one went into Normandy on a glider, crewed a pack howitzer.
My father was in the 6AD. The book was given to my grandfather by my mother. He had two sons and three son in laws in the war.
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