dual personalities

Today is the anniversary of the day in 1945 when journalist Ernie Pyle was killed by enemy fire on Iejima during the Battle of Okinawa, the very last pitched battle of World War Two.

A roving correspondent for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, he earned wide acclaim (and a Pulitzer Prize) for his accounts of ordinary American soldiers.

Now I feel like watching The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)

which stars Burgess Meredith as Ernie Pyle and Robert Mitchum at the very beginning of his career.

The movie premiered two months to the day after Pyle was killed in action and was very popular.

Burgess Meredith with Ernie Pyle

According to TCM, William Wellman, who was a fighter pilot in World War I, hated the infantry and had no interest in making a film about them. Wellman finally agreed to take the job only after meeting and spending several days with Ernie Pyle at Pyle’s home in New Mexico, where he saw how much former infantrymen revered him.

Wellman describes one of his evenings with Pyle in his memoirs, A Short Time for Insanity (1974): “During the meal, I saw two G.I.’s who had recognized Ernie, though his back was to them. I could tell they were talking about him by their frequent glances in his direction. Unknowingly, this was to be my first baptism of the greatness of this little giant of the G.I.’s. When we were halfway through our dinner, the two G.I.’s got up and left. Just before they passed through the door, they took a last look at Ernie, said a few words to each other. I felt that they wanted to come over and talk to him but thought that perhaps this wasn’t the time or the place. Not right in the middle of a man’s dinner. I’ll never forget the expression on their faces when they looked at Ernie.”

After doing a little search, it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to find the movie to watch, but I’ll keep looking! In the meantime we can read some of his wartime columns here in the Indiana University archive. (Yes, he was a hoosier hero.)

Join me in a toast to Ernie Pyle!