Up until his death in 1945, newspaper correspondent Ernie Pyle mesmerized the nation with his personal and genuine stories about everything from pilots to bellboys to WWII soldiers. Through his reporting, he became a national folk hero and eventually the voice of the American soldier. By 1944, his articles for Scripps-Howard Newspapers had earned him a Pulitzer Prize.
Photo by GBM Historical Images, Shutterstock / GBM Historical Images, Shutterstock / Source: Twitter
There was even a Hollywood movie about him called Ernie Pyle’s Story of G.I. Joe, which starred Burgess Meredith as the thin and aging 44-year-old reporter. A humble man, Pyle insisted that the film include fellow war correspondents playing themselves, as opposed to actors. But, unfortunately, he was killed before the film was ever released. And, in an almost prophetic way, he knew it was coming…