• The Pulitzer Prize

Date of birth:

August 3rd, 1900 (Dana/Indiana, United States)

Date of death:

April 18th, 1945 (Ie Shima/Okinawa, Japan)

Buried on:

National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
Plot: D. Grave: 109.

Nationality:

American

Ernest Pyle was born August 3rd, 1900 in Dana, Indiana. During World War One he served in the US Naval Reserve. After the war he attended Indiana University. Without graduating, he went to work for a newspaper in LaPorte, Indiana. After some time he was hired by The Washington Daily News to become a reporter and ultimately became Managing Director, a post he would hold for three years.
In 1926 he married Geraldine "Jerry" Siebolds. Pyle quit his job in 1926 because he was not satisfied with his office job. He traveled across the United States with his wife until he retook his job at the Daily News. In 1928 he became aviation reporter until he became Managing Director again in 1932. In 1934 he returned to journalism. His articles on travel became so popular that he started a National Column for the Scripps-Howard Alliance Group in 1935. To this end he traveled across the United States and continued doing so until 1942.
When the United States got involved in World War Two, Pyle became a war correspondent. He distinguished himself by his writing from the viewpoint of the common soldier. For this he was awarded the Pullitzer Price. On April 14th, 1942 he divorced his wife but remarried again by proxy on March 10th, 1943 when he was in Africa. Due to his writing in 1944 about rewards to soldiers, advocating a "fight pay," Congress passed a law granting a Combat Infantry Man an additional 10 dollars a month. This bill was called the "Erny Pyle Bill." Ernie Pyle reported from almost all theatres of operations. In July 1944 he almost lost his life when the US Army Air Corps unintentionally bombed friendly troops during Operation Cobra near St. Lo in Normandy. After a short leave, he departed for the Pacific aboard U.S.S. Cabot. He accompanied the troops to Okinawa to report on the landing and the fighting. Ernest Pyle lost his life on April 18th, 1945 on Le Shima, Okinawa when the jeep in which he sat with the commanding officer of 305th infantry Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph B. Coolidge came under Japanese machinegun fire. Initially the men succeeded to escape unhurt but when Pyle raised himself to check if everybody was unhurt, he was killed by this fire.
Initially, Pyle was buried on Le Shima, later to be taken to the temporary burial site on the island of Okinawa. Ultimately, his remains were laid to rest on the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

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• Photo 1: U.S. Navy
• Photo 2: Cumulus Clouds
• - TOBIN, J., America's Eyewitness to World War II, Free Press, Simon & Schuster, 2000.
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