Dear Publishers and Editors,
Veterans Day is an appropriate time for us to recall the sacrifices made by those serving and who had served in our Armed Forces. To mark this occasion, the Ernie Pyle World War II Museum in Dana, Indiana, and Scripps Howard Foundation offer this reprint of Pyle’s most famous column – “The Death of Capt. Waskow.” It’s a reminder to all of the ultimate sacrifice made by so many Americans to maintain the freedoms we enjoy.
If you decide to use the piece for your Veterans Day edition, we ask that you consider adding a paragraph about the Ernie Pyle World War II Museum.
If you want to expose your readers to additional columns by Ernie Pyle, you could
include the following link to the Indiana University School of Journalism, housed in Ernie Pyle
Hall on the Bloomington, Indiana, campus, where your readers can access additional stories
written by him: http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/erniepyle/
Click here to download "The Death fo Capt. Waskow."
Ernie Pile Bio
The son of a tenant farming parents in west-central Indiana, Ernie Pyle became history’s
greatest war correspondent. When Pyle was killed by a Japanese machine gun bullet on the tiny
Pacific island of Ie Shima in 1945, his columns were published in more than 700 newspapers.
During the war, Pyle wrote about the hardships and bravery of the common soldier, not
grand strategy. His description of the G.I.’s life was more important to families on the home
front than battlefront tactics of Gens. Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton or
Omar Bradley.
Prior to the United States’ entry into World War II, Pyle traveled to England and wrote
about the Nazi’s continual bombing of London. His columns helped move the mood of America
from isolationism to sympathy for the stubborn refusal of Great Britain to succumb to the will of
Adolf Hitler.
The Pulitzer Prize winning journalist’s legacy rests in his words and the impact they had
on Americans before and during a war that threatened to take the world behind a curtain of
fascism. His columns open a window to the hardships endured by the common U.S. soldier
during World War II and serve today to honor what has been called “The Greatest Generation.”
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The Ernie Pyle World War II Museum features the famous journalist’s birthplace and a
museum dedicated to Pyle’s life and writings as a war correspondent. It is owned by the Friends
of Ernie Pyle, who are dedicated to preserving and expanding the legacy of the writer whose
columns linked the soldiers on the front line to worried families on the home front. To preserve
Ernie Pyle’s memory is to preserve the sacrifices made by what has been dubbed “The Greatest
Generation.” To learn more about the Ernie Pyle World War II Museum located in Dana,
Indiana, or make a donation to assist the efforts of the Friends of Ernie Pyle to honor him and
that generation, go to www.erniepyle.org.
One of the Scripps Howard Foundation’s objectives is to keep alive the legacy of Ernie
Pyle and his writings. The Foundation is, in fact, the assignee of rights in various of Pyle’s
columns. However, the copyright ownership of Pyle’s works is not always entirely clear (with
rights in certain of Pyle’s writings held by the Foundation, by various publishers, and by various
other parties). Accordingly, the Foundation hereby grants you the requested permission, but
makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to its ownership of the Pyle materials in
question or that it possesses the rights in the Pyle materials for which you have requested
permission.
