Posted on 06/06/2011 8:34:44 AM PDT by MNJohnnie
Isn’t it Ernie Pyle?
Thanks for the correction
Ernie Pyle would die in the Pacific in 1945. The GI’s loved him.
Each year at this time I try to watch "Saving Private Ryan" in remembrance of those who landed on that day.
I have never served, but those first 15-20 minutes are enough to let anybody know how visceral the fighting must have been.
God bless those who gave their lives and those who lived to fight again.
They truly were the "Greatest Generation".
Admin Mod - Please revise the title? Ernie most certainly deserves it.
D-Day ping.
Ernie Pyle: "Due to a last-minute alteration in the arrangements, I didn’t arrive on the beachhead until the morning after D-day, after our first wave of assault troops had hit the shore. By the time we got here the beaches had been taken and the fighting had moved a couple of miles inland. All that remained on the beach was some sniping and artillery fire, and the occasional startling blast of a mine geysering brown sand into the air.
Politico's Kasie Hunt: "Journalists in the caravan trailing her 'One Nation' tour bus describe the experience as harrowing, a rolling menace careening up the East Coast in hot pursuit . . ."
Visualize swapping situations on these two individuals. I can't imagine Kasie even lifting her head to peek at the battlefield, let alone writing casually about the snipers, artillery, and mines, nor can I imagine Ernie whimpering about having to drive at the speed of the average driver on the road. I hope Ernie is resting in peace despite what happened to his profession in the last few decades.
There is a link in this post by FReeper sayuncledave to the actual news broadcasts, as they happened, on that fateful day
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2730484/posts?page=3#3
I’ve been playing them in the background all day....well worth it.
Thanks!
“Each year at this time I try to watch “Saving Private Ryan” in remembrance of those who landed on that day.”
A cousin of mine was there, in command of one of the landing craft. I asked him a few years ago if he had seen the movie. He said, no, I don’t have to see it...I was there.
When Journalists were Journalists.
Admin Mods are the best!
I have seen his grave at Punchbowl in Honolulu. Challenger astronaut Ellison Onizuka is next to him.
My dad was nowhere near Europe on 6/6/44 but he did take part in three beachheads in the Pacific. He said "The only things missing are the smells."
If one simply looks at the writing crafted by Ernie Pyle in these difficult circumstances on the beach after D-Day, one has no doubt that he was the most evocative and most popular war correspondent of the age. He was the real deal who continually exposed himself to enemy fire and was finally killed in the Pacific where he had volunteered to go and cover the war against Japan after VE day.
My great Dad was out in the Pacific at the time of the D-Day Invasion. However, he had a close friend on the U.S.S. Nevada that did in fact support the Invasion.
I have a "tissue paper" copy of the actual log from the Nevada from that morning. If memory serves, the first salvo from the forward mount was fired at 0342 hrs, June 6.
And less than one year later....Hitler was dead, Germany unconditionally surrendered, and the European Theater of Operations was closed.
The Greatest Generation!
Ernie Pyle had a keen eye for detail and a graceful, rhythmic style of writing that captures so much in so few words. His tribute to the heroes of D-Day is one of my favorites. Made God bless and keep them all.
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