[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 64 (Thursday, April 6, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E800-E801]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         TRIBUTE TO ERNIE PYLE

                                 ______


                         HON. STEPHEN E. BUYER

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 5, 1995
  Mr. BUYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the life of one 
of the most beloved Hoosiers of the 20th century on the 50th 
anniversary of his death. He was a man of strong character. unwavering 
dedication, and a common touch. Born in the American heartland, he 
became world famous by chronicling the struggles of countless ``G.I. 
Joes'' during World War II. his writing remains some of the most 
poignant and moving in the history of warfare. I speak, of course, of 
that most beloved war correspondent and friend of the common soldier, 
Ernie Pyle.
  He was born in Dana, IN, on August 3, 1900. It could have been 
Anywhere, USA. An only child, he was a wiry, red-headed, shy boy raised 
on a farm. After a short stint in the Navy, he enrolled in journalism 
at Indiana University. Restless and eager to move on, he left school 
his senior year to pursue a career in writing. His early jobs included 
positions with the La Porte Herald Argus, the Scripps-Howard Daily News 
in Washington, DC, and the Evening World and the Evening Post in New 
York.
  Ernie Pyle began his career as a syndicated columnist in 1935 when he 
took a 3 month sick leave from the Washington Daily News and toured the 
country by car with his wife, Geraldine Elizabeth Siebolds. Returning 
to Washington, he wrote numerous columns describing his experiences. 
His chatty style, which became his trademark, was popular with readers 
and the Scripps-Howard group created the post of roving correspondent 
for Pyle. In this position, he criss-crossed the continent 35 times 
gathering material for his columns.
  Ernie Pyle's first experience with war came in 1939, when he was sent 
overseas to cover the outbreak of World War II. His early coverage of 
the Nazi bombing of London was so gripping that his dispatches were 
cabled back to Britain for readers there. Soon Pyle found himself 
accompanying military units to the various fronts that developed as the 
war progressed. It was here that Pyle developed his now famous love for 
the combat infantryman--the ``G.I. Joes'' of the U.S. Army. His 
coverage of the North African campaign, written in the folksy style 
that became his trademark, included the names and hometowns of the 
junior officers and men who actually did the fighting.
  Known affectionately as ``the little guy,''--he weighed only 110 
lbs--Pyle accompanied the soldiers through North Africa and into 
Sicily. His writing is best described by Pyle himself:

       I only know what we see from our worm's-eye view, and our 
     segment of the picture consists only of tired and dirty 
     soldiers who are alive and don't want to die; of long 
     darkened convoys in the middle of the night; of shocked 
     silent men wandering back down the hill from battle; of chow 
     lines and atabrine tablets and foxholes and burning tanks and 
     Arabs holding up eggs and the rustle of high-flown shells; of 
     Jeeps and petrol dumps and smelly bedding rolls and C-rations 
     and cactus patches and blown bridges and dead mules and 
     hospital tents and shirt collars greasy-black from months of 
     wearing; and laughter, too, and anger and wine and loverly 
     flowers and constant cussing. All these things it is composed 
     of; and graves and graves and graves.

  Exhausted, Pyle returned home following the invasion of Sicily, only 
to return to Europe in time to cover the Italian campaign, including 
the Anzio landing. Although sick with anemia, it was here that Pyle 
wrote his most famous column on the death of Capt. Henry T. Waskow of 
Belton, TX. He returned to England in April 1944 to await the invasion 
of Normandy. During this period, he received the Pulitzer Prize for his 
war correspondence. He continued his coverage of the European theater 
from the Normandy landings to the liberation of Paris. After 29 months 
overseas and 700,000 written words on the war, Pyle returned home once 
again.
  His restlessness continued. Half-bald, grey and thin, Pyle declared 
himself a deserter, and decided to return to combat, this time in the 
Pacific. He landed with the 77th Infantry Division on Ie Shima in the 
Ryukyus on April 17, 1945. It was here that Pyle's luck ran out. After 
spending the night under fire, he started out for the front in a jeep 
on the morning of April 18. Caught in a machine gun ambush, he dove 
into a ditch for cover. He was killed minutes later by a Japanese 
sniper when he raised his head. On learning of his death, the Secretary 
of War stated that ``They like him because he talked their language. 
They trusted him because he reported them faithfully to the public at 
home.''
  Originally buried where he fell, Pyle's body was later interred on 
Okinawa and finally at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, 
the Punchbowl Crater, Hawaii. But he was never forgotten in his home in 
Vermillion County. In 1975, Pyle's farmhouse was moved into Dana and 
became a museum. On April 18, 1995, 50 years after his death, two 
Quonset huts will be dedicated as additions to this museum to store his 
memorabilia. There can be no more fitting symbol to honor a man who 
covered America's finest in the farthest points of the globe.
  Today we remember Ernie Pyle. Not for his Pulitzer, or his honorary 
degrees, but for his 
[[Page E801]] common touch. We remember him because 50 years ago, in a 
world at war, he reminded us that it is people--regular, everyday 
people from places like Dana, IN--who love, and fight and die in war. 
It is for this reason that as long as we remember World War II, we will 
remember the chronicler of America's G.I. Joes--Ernie Pyle.


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