War correspondent Ernie Pyle remembered for stories of GI Joes

[Omaha Steve]

U.S. NAVY
One of the last photos taken of Ernie Pyle before his death. He is shown talking with Marines on a Navy transport en route to the invasion of Okinawa, where he was killed in action on April 18, 1945. Nebraskans and Iowans were among those featured in Pyle’s war coverage.


http://www.omaha.com/news/military/war-correspondent-ernie-pyle-remembered-for-stories-of-gi-joes/article_6a3546e3-49eb-50f8-a4cd-9b74121ef72d.html

POSTED: SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2015 12:15 AM | UPDATED: 12:30 PM, SUN APR 19, 2015.
By Steve Liewer / World-Herald staff writer

(at link Indiana University's selection of Pyle wartime columns & Ernie Pyle World War II Museum* * *)


Navy Seaman 1st Class Gene Twohey was working in his Higgins boat just off the battle-scarred island of Okinawa on April 18, 1945, when a battleship’s loudspeaker bellowed the terrible news.

“It was loud and clear,” recalled Twohey, 88, who lives in Omaha. “They said, ‘We just got word that Ernie Pyle was shot. He is dead.’??”

A Japanese sniper on Ie Shima, a tiny island just west of Okinawa, had killed the world’s most famous war correspondent.

Pyle’s death 70 years ago this weekend stunned Twohey, who had met Pyle shortly before his death when the slight, balding journalist hitched a ride on his boat. And it shocked Americans already grieving the loss of President Franklin Roosevelt six days earlier.

FULL story, photos, and related stories at link. at link.

'I've been given a job to do and I've got to do it'

Excerpt from Ernie Pyle column Feb. 21, 1944, about Frank “Buck” Eversole, a platoon sergeant from Missouri Valley, Iowa:
Buck Eversole has the Purple Heart and two Silver Stars for bravery. He is cold and deliberate in battle. His commanders depend on him more than on any other man. He has been wounded once, and had countless narrow escapes. He has killed many Germans.
He is the kind of man you instinctively feel safer with than with other people. He is not helpless like most of us. He is practical. He can improvise, patch things, fix things.

His grammar is the unschooled grammar of the plains and the soil. He uses profanity, but never violently. Even in the familiarity of his own group his voice is always low. He is such a confirmed soldier by now that he always says “sir” to any stranger. It is impossible to conceive of his doing anything dishonest. …

Buck Eversole has no hatred for Germans. He kills because he’s trying to keep himself alive. … He armors himself with a philosophy of acceptance of what may happen.

“I’m mighty sick of it all,” he says very quietly, “but there ain’t no use to complain. I just figured it this way, that I’ve been given a job to do and I’ve got to do it. And if I don’t live through it, there’s nothing I can do about it.”

[jwirr]

1. Thank you. Remember his name and what he did. We read his columns together at night. I was

very young.

[marym625]

2. Beautiful tribute to a brave, caring man

K&R

[Lars39]

3. My dad loved Ernie.

Dad *barely* even mentioned his service, but he was always quick to praise Ernie Pyle. You could tell he was very saddened by his death.

[shenmue]

4. ...

[burrowowl]

5. RIP Ernie Pyle!

Will always remember you!