Ernie Pyle
Ernest Taylor Pyle (August 3, 1900 – April 18, 1945) was an American journalist who wrote as a roving correspondent for the Scripps Howard newspaper chain from 1935 until his death in combat during World War II. Ernie Pyle was the uncle to the actor Denver Pyle, famous for his role of Uncle Jesse on the Dukes of Hazard. His articles, about the out-of-the-way places he visited and the people who lived there, were written in a folksy style much like a personal letter to a friend. He enjoyed a loyal following in as many as 300 newspapers.
He reported from the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Pacific. On April 18, 1945 Pyle died on Ie Shima, an island off Okinawa Honto, as the result of machine gun fire from an enemy machine gun nest. He had been riding in a jeep with Lieutenant Colonel Joseph B. Coolidge, commanding officer of the 305th, as well as three other men. The road, which paralleled the beach two or three hundred yards inland, had been cleared of mines, and hundreds of vehicles had driven over it. As the vehicle reached a road junction, a machine gun position on a coral ridge about a third of a mile away began shooting at them. The men stopped their vehicle and jumped into a ditch. Pyle and Coolidge raised their heads to look around for the others, and when they spotted them, Pyle smiled and asked Coolidge "Are you all right?" Those were his last words. The sniper began shooting again, and Pyle was struck in the left temple. The colonel called for a medic, but there were none present. Pyle had been killed instantly. He was buried with his helmet on, and laid to rest in a long row of graves among other soldiers, an infantry private on one side, an engineer on the other. At the 10 minute service, the Navy, Marine Corps, and Army were represented.[7] He was later reburied at the Army cemetery on Okinawa, then moved to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific located in Honolulu. When Okinawa was returned to the Japanese, the Ernie Pyle Memorial was one of three American memorials they allowed to remain in place.