Devil Doc
When Death smiles, Corpsmen smile back
It's the birthday of one of America's first embedded reporters, Ernie Pyle, born Ernest Taylor Pyle in a little white farmhouse near Dana, Indiana (1900). He wrote for newspapers about World War II in the form of daily letters home from the war front. When he covered the war, he never made it look glamorous. He hated it, and he described all the horror and agony around him. He included the names and hometown addresses of all the soldiers he wrote about.
For three years Pyle wrote about the war, until he couldn't stand it any longer. But four months later, he went back, this time to the Pacific. On April 18, 1945, he and a colonel were in a jeep riding to the command post on an island just west of Okinawa when they were shot at by Japanese machine guns. They dove into a ditch, where a second shot hit Pyle in the left temple, killing him instantly.
For three years Pyle wrote about the war, until he couldn't stand it any longer. But four months later, he went back, this time to the Pacific. On April 18, 1945, he and a colonel were in a jeep riding to the command post on an island just west of Okinawa when they were shot at by Japanese machine guns. They dove into a ditch, where a second shot hit Pyle in the left temple, killing him instantly.
