Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 19 April 1945 — Page 2

PAGE. 2 Veterans

SOLDIERS FEEL 1085 OF ERNE

Their Buddy and ‘His String Had Run Out.

By VICTOR PETERSON Times Staff Writer ~ CAMP ATTERBURY, April 19.— The champion of the G. I. is dead. And here where some, 8000 battle * casualties ‘are fighting their way pack to health, these G. I's find it hard to believe that Ernie Pyle is gone. > It was almost as if one voice said: “He was a swell little guy, just one of us. He saw the war as we saw it. He was the only one who gave a damn about the doughfoot.”

He Was Everywhere There are millions of America’s men in service, and millions everseas. And so it is hard to believe that

one man, Ernie Pyle, could see so many on the foxhole front or pass 80 close to so many as these 8000 at Wakeman. » But to these doughboys he was| a material will-o-the-wisp. He was| everywhere on the front from Africa to Sicily to Italy to Nor- - mandy through France. The men here feel keenly the Joss of Ernie. But they have seen the death of battle. They are not shocked. They have seen their buddies fall as. they drove forward. Ernie was their buddy and his “string had run out.” ' Capt. Eugene Jackson of Detroit! and 1st Sgt. Nicholas Chirekos,| Moline, Ill, both of the Carhp At-| terbury-trained 83d division, felt the loss, “We never saw him,” @apt. Jack- | son said, “But he was all around! our outfit. All of us read him in - the Stars and Stripes. ry “Just before we got it and were sent home, several of us were sitting around talking about Ernie heading for the Pacific. : didnt’ think it was a smart * deal and hated to see him go. He'd been too lucky too long. We didn't expect to see him come back.” On the Same Ship Sgt. Byron Deerr, Belle Plaine, Iowa, came back on the same ship with Ernie last year. “He. was the best man I've ever seen in the line,” the sergeant said “He seemed tired and worn out on the way back. None of us blamed him for coming home for he sure did his job . . . more than his job “All he could think of on ship was how we G. 1's were getting along He spent a lot of time with us bed patients and he. autographed some money for me.

“While I.was in an English hos<|

pital we used to talk about him. All of us said, ‘There's a guy who doesn't lie,” Sgt. Deerr said. Technician 5th Grade Ray LeDuc, Escanaba, Mich. got the first news in his ward of Ernie's death, “The fellows wouldn’t believe it I had to tell them over and over again,” he said. “Ernle was with us a good deal

at St. Lo. In fact, the night be-

fore the jump-off for the big break-

Pyle Feared Sight of Death, : But Wasn't Afraid of Dying

By LT. JIM G. LUCAS

Marine Combat Correspondent

WASHINGTON, April 19. — A

month ago, at Guam, Ernie Pyls

told me he was afraid of the Oki- |

nawa campaign.

1 knew what he meant. He wasn't afraid of dying. He didn't take that into account. He was afraid of the sight and smell of death— Dim on the Washington Daily News . | Dick was wounded early in battle

the other fellow's death —and of the mess a bloody show can make of man. inside.

Later, when he wrote his first

, Okinawa stery, he said that. Hu

wrote he'd dreaded going ashore; «Goq 1 hope not,” he said. “Dick ahd stepping over dead men who'd deserves better than that.” conié in alive. He said he, was re-|

lieved not to find them. Cattsed Excitement

Ernie was a great reporter be- through both legs. cause he wag your reporter. He was, “I'nr on the next one you know,’ 3 viting for you: I had just come he sald. “I'm scared to death.” 5 sl I said he didn’t look seared. "htcount of the desth of the young Pit-you-ever see anyone who Texas captain in Italy. To me, that! did?” he asked. “But I don't sleep was the finest prose ever written much at night thinking about: | Aad

rough Tarawa . when I read hi

I knew, on Tarawa, that Ernie Pylt

Zin Italy, had written that for mie. Jt, He said he wanted to get “the ow. WAS something we shared together.|feel”, of the Pacific war, and that He was a great reporter because. was. the reason” he was going with he was what he wrote, He didn't the marines to Okinawa. It-wasn't } think of himself as great. Ab.Guam, | because he wanted to get into any © He was distressed if the military more trouble. oe i 3d him out for special favors.| “The marines want vou along.” He'd much rather sit around. and |I sald. “The boys on Two afe sore

be ane of the boys. .

‘My Last Landing,

| though he admitted it would be dif-

{want so much to see how it ali

i He must have been a rough. one” 3 4We asured- him it vas.

WHE AAA pT A

Mourn Loss of Their ©. I. Champion

Message Pyle - Sent 'That Girl’

SAN DIEGO, April 19 (U. P)— Ernie Pyle's last message to the United States said that “this _will be my last landing,” Lt. Cmdr. Max Miller, who accompanied Ernie from the shores of Normandy to the South Pacific, said tonight Miller, who just returned to the U. S., said Pyle had asked him to deliver the message to “That Girl.” “Repeatedly he said he knew he would be killed if he hit another beachhead,” Miller said “Before he finally settled the question of whether or not to go ashore in his own mind, he spent three sleepless days and nights. Then on the fourth morning he made up his mind.” Preferred Outright Death “‘Now I feel all right -again’" Miller said Pyle told him. *“ ‘But if something should happen to me I hope I am killed outright.” Miller last saw the columnist on Guam when Pyle was preparing to leave for Okinawa. “At that time Ernie said he was getting used to the navy. routine,” Miller said. “Though he had declared that he would much rather be attacked on land instead of sea.” Pyle and Miller, himself a wellknown author (“I Cover The Waterfront,” “Daybreak for Our’ Carrier”), had been under fire on many fronts together. “Like all the G. 1.’s he dreamed of home and peace,” Miller said. Post-War Ambitions Pyle had confided to Miller that he had only two post-war ambitions. One was that he wanted to invite to his home as his guests all those men in uniform whom he thought his particular friends, al-

ficult since they were all his friends. His other hope, Miller said, was that he might some day write a novel. It was, as Pyle explained it, “an ambition of any person who wants to do something he knows he can't do.” » _ Miller said Ernig’'s one comment before going. dn. on Okinawa was

that if ‘he sho ior wee pa wn

will - miss ‘everything going: on. I ends.”

GOODS FLOW TO PRISONERS yWASHINGTON, April 19 (U. P.). —Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters has reported that large quantities of Red Cross supplies are being delivered to American and allied prisoners of war in German prison camps, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson said today through we sat around together for a mess of tinned rations, | “He was a hell of a nice guy and a‘ regular G. 1.” Technician LeDuc paused for a while. Then he said: “Ernie could make you laugh and see the light side. . I haven't any more hair than he had. We used to sit around and slap foreheads and wonder what old men were doing at the front “But it's more than that. we've really lost a-man.. -I can't help but think what he would have done to help the soldier after the war is over.”

|go along. ' They felt: compensated because he was on .a carrier off shore When I flew out of Iwo Jima, I found Ernie at Adm. Nimitiz' press ‘headquarters on Guam. 1 stopped to’ tell him about T. Sgt Dick Tenelly, a 4th division combat cor= respondent who once worked with

I told Ernie that Tenelly ‘might lose a leg “Scared to Death" It hurt him. &

“He wanted to know how it happened. I couldn't tell him much Only that . Tenelly- had been shot

o Getting “the ¥ecl”

‘Woecause you weren't there” They're a cheerful bunch,” he “Want to get me hurt,

T. 5 Ray LeDuc ... . “He wis a regular G. 1.”

EI VITRO BHD AD A Lg nN Fa PTS

= THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

aE A. ‘Gedig, who was “killed in died here on Ie Shima at 10:15 in! queked. back. He turned to Pyle.

action on Luzen Jan. 25, 1945, will| Js 14d qoath had s y eath had spread over open his back, too still for life, « = * be held at 8 a. m. Saturddy In water as far as Mishina two miles : ;

Sacred Heart Catholic church. | away.

| inaccessible.

7 : ” 2 (8 » : pe . THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1945 ~ Ernie Dies While on Way To Front Fighting Sector | Dies While on Way Fo Front Fighting Sector SOLDIER By JACK HOOLEY After a few minutes they peered |a burst of fire from the hidden |appearance was the signal for the * Blue’ Network wa Correspondent |cautionsly ower the edge. Another |Japs, but finally Col. Coolidge man- machine gunner to open up with femorial services for Pyt. Thom-| IE SHIMA, Aptil 19.—Ernie Pyle burst of fire and Col. Coolidge aged to crawl te cover and submit |such a steady fire that the crew men ; ! {his report. : : e morning, An hour later, word| The veteran correspondent lay on| For_a long time, Pyle's body was| When they retired, Cpl. ‘Alexander a e. Finally the chaplain| Roberts of New York City volunDeath had come instantly from of the outfit ‘asked for volunteers|teered tc go alone. From the point three bullet wounds in the temple. to bring him in. ¥ | Pvt. Gedig is survived by“eight! Relayed by an artillery officer at; Every bit of movement brought! First three tanks moved up. Their | tired gbout 125 yafds back of the

sisters; Miss Grace Gedig, 340 Pros-| the front by radio, by blinker light — pect st, with.whom he made his and by word of mouth, it i home: Mrs. ‘Gértrude Scott, Mrs. spread from Iie Shima to the ships] Pauline Nelson, Mrs. Caroline Reit-| standing off shore—all in.that short | |zel, Mrs: Louise Lee, Mrs: Marie time. ‘

GUAM, April 19 (U, P.).—Heroic }

ing heard that our troops were eN-| , ... ina) medal of honor to-2.YEAR-OLD CHILD

{gaged in heavy fighting for a Hme| . below a mountain peak on the tiny! day at a naval hospital for galOF SAILOR KILLED island, ‘he set out for the spot with| lantry and heroism above the call | - TERRE HAUTE, April 19 (U. P.). Lt. 001. Joseph Otlidge: along In a Of Quty during a'B-2) raid on | —Jimmie Clark, 2-year-old son of jeep over the narrow coral road Koriyama, Japan, April 12 a U. S. sailor, was killed last night taken by our troops the day before! He received the award—first of when he was. dragged several feet As the jeep rounded a corner, a| its kind to be given a member after his foot caught in a bus door. sudden burst- bf fire from a Jap| of a B-20 crew — almost .comHis mother, Mrs. Robert L. Clark, machine gun hidden on a ridge sent| njai01y swathed in bandages while alighted first and, as she turned to both men scrambling for a ditch, thé ‘members ‘of ‘the crew whose help her son off, the erowded bus/ The gun fire stopped. Both had lives B d Took started, authorities were told. The been through this kind of thing| ives pe saved looked on. father is based at Great Lakes, Ill | before. Erwin was dropping phosphorous

Grasps Hot Bomb And Saves B-29

bombs at a rendezvous point during the flight So ‘that the

exploded filling the entire forward area of the plane with smoke so thick the pilots could not see. He grabbed the intensely hot bomb in his hands and felt his way around until he reached the co-pilot’'s window and threw it out. He fell back to the flight deck floor completely aflame. The smoke cleared. just in time for the pilot to see that he was only 300 feet from the ground and to pull out of the dive safely.

were helpless Inside the tanks.

| beyond which the Yanks had re-

bend mn the rvoad, Cpl.. Roberts crawled to the jeep. He found Pyle's face beneath the helmet he wore, peaceful in death. In his left hand:Pyle clutched® the marine 18 gue cap he always wore, “A helmet is a lot of iron for 'a man like me to carry around,” he said to me recently, “so when I get to a safe place I switch to a cap.” With the way shown by Cpl Roberts, the chaplain, who had not wished to risk four lives, crawled over the ground with a litter bearer and they made 80 yards of the return trip before the machine gun opened up on them. Four hours after his death, Ernie Pyle's body was. inside our lines again.

—

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- THUR

* Hoos

T. 5th ( o « + Killed |

DEAD—

Marine Pf last son of | Ketter, Dany action, Wounded

“while servin

division, the turned imme was killed i days later os His elder Ketter died July 20, 194 the 3d army Youngest ¢ Harry E. Ke three years ville. Jack, who | last June, h invasion of battle. He corps the da; day. The | Creek school

Second Lt. of C. M. Cla; st., and Mrs. Kenmore rd Italy April 5. A member of the 5th went overse was a gradus where he wa basketball te student. He at Iffdiana u ing the arm was a memb

‘19 and the

fraternity. A brother, Clapp, is w! force in Eng

T. 5th G brother of El st., was kille lands March Husband Mooresville, : B. H. Palme 26 and was

STRA SAYS