Veterans Day
With just a couple of days to go until Veteran's Day, I have been listening to the RUSC World at War radio station, where I came across a show about America's best loved war correspondent, Ernie Pyle.
For the people who were waiting anxiously at home for news of their loved ones during World War II, Ernie Pyle's daily column was just like getting a letter from a father, son, brother, husband or sweetheart whose lives were currently consumed with battling their way to victory.
He was no stranger to war himself, after he had enlisted during World War I at the age of just 17 years old. He served three months of active duty until the war ended, then finished his enlistment in the reserves before being discharged with the rank of Petty Officer Third Class.
Ernie's war time reports from the home front, European and Pacific theatres were syndicated across more than 300 newspapers nationwide, and told everyone the facts they wanted to know about the ordinary American soldiers fighting in the war - such as where the men were sleeping, what they were eating, what they were thinking, doing and hoping for.
In 1944, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his poignant accounts of those infantry soldiers from a first-person perspective, and the soon-to-be elected President Harry Truman said 'No man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told. He deserves the gratitude of all his countrymen.'
Sadly, he was killed by enemy fire not long afterwards, on Lejima in the Pacific, during the Battle of Okinawa. He was buried there with his helmet still on, among other battle casualties, but was re-interred at the Army cemetery on Okinawa after the war ended, and later at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, and in 1983 he was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart - a rare honor for a civilian.
Listen to the story of Ernie Pyle, broadcast by the Cavalcade of America in the show, Here Is Your War, or in Arch Oboler's Play, Mr Pyle.
Other important broadcasts to help us remember those days lest we forget, are of course the historical World News Today broadcasts many of which from World War II have been preserved and are available to listen to today.
And of course, there is the World at War Radio Station available on RUSC.
A poignant selection of old time radio shows to remind us of the courage and bravery of the fighting men and women who have served in the conflicts of the past century.
Happy listening my friends,
