Ernie Pyle
From 1935 until his death on Okinawa in 1945, Ernie Pyle was a roving correspondent for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain. He was never a “big picture” kind of guy. Before the war his stories focused on out-of-the-way places and the people who lived in them. His style had the flavor of personal letters home. During the war he traveled with U.S. forces in just about every theater, and he never changed his approach. Early in the war, United Press writer Reynolds Packard, who considered himself a “more serious” war correspondent, gave him some advice:
“You’re on the wrong track. Nobody cares about these GI stories you write from the line. You’ve got to learn how to analyze the communiqués that come out of Eisenhower’s headquarters. That’s the secret of being a war correspondent. Figuring out from all that what is really going on.”
“You’re right, Pack, absolutely right,” said Ernie Pyle miserably. “I’m a lousy correspondent. I know it. I’m trying. Believe me. I’m trying. But I just can’t seem to get that stuff straight.”
“I know,” said Packard heroically. “It takes a lot of experience.”158
Pyle may have made a conscientious effort to better understand the “big picture” of politics and strategy, but, fortunately, he continued to focus his stories on the ordinary soldiers fighting the war. He said, “ I love the infantry because they are the underdogs… they have no comforts… and in the end they are the guys that wars can’t be won without. ”159
When he was killed on Okinawa, the soldiers erected a simple plaque: “ At this spot, the 77th Infantry Division lost a buddy, Ernie Pyle, 18 April 1945.”160 Ernie Pyle’s personal humility and empathy toward others made him a beloved figure to the soldiers he wrote about and to readers in four hundred daily newspapers.
For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
—Matthew 23:12