Posted by
Conservative Wordsmith on Saturday, September 29, 2007 10:25:42 PM
Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin writes: The War, a new seven-part Ken Burns’ PBS documentary that premiered on Sunday, September 23, is captivating Americans across America. It is the kind of engrossing series that PBS excels at, and I would personally like to thank everyone involved in this production for enriching my understanding of World War II.
If you have also been watching The War, you might have heard the narrator mention the name Ernie Pyle. I happen to know a recent college graduate that wrote a fine essay about wartime journalist Ernie Pyle. The following quotations are but a brief excerpt from George August Koch’s essay entitled “War De Facto.” You may visit the author’s website to read the entire essay at http://www.georgeaugustkoch.com/Writings.htm.
War De Facto
Ernie Pyle’s WWII Journalism on the Harsh Reality
of War and the Life of the Soldier
“Pyle set out to expose the truth about war. He believed that only those who were actually experiencing it firsthand could ever begin to describe it—so he traveled overseas, along with other reporters. But unlike the others, he lived and traveled with the soldiers, right up to the front lines of battle. Most of his time was spent with the infantry, about whom he came to feel deeply. There he discovered that the real heroes, the ones who were really doing the most dying and sacrifice, were the infantrymen, also called GIs or doughboys. So Pyle found another, perhaps even more meaningful, reason to be out there on the front lines—not only to see, feel, live and breathe war and paint a more accurate portrait of it, but to remind the folks back home of the “little guy” to whom they really owed their gratitude. With a twofold purpose, then, Pyle set out, armed with little more than a helmet, Army-issue uniform and typewriter—not to mention his quiet, unassuming personality and straightforward, vividly simple way with words.”
“The second major aspect of Pyle’s writing that made him such a distinctive voice was his enduring praise of ordinary infantrymen. They had his undying gratitude, and to him, they were the true heroes. He said that these young men 'live and die so miserably and they do it with such determined acceptance that your admiration for them blinds you to the rest of the war.' And he added,'To me all the war of the world has seemed to be borne by the few thousand front-line soldiers here, destined merely by chance to suffer and die for the rest of us' (Ernie Pyle’s War 132). Pyle was careful not to let his deep feelings run afoul of his intent to not glamorize war. In fact, he did not normally tell stories of great heroism but of great sacrifice. Although sometimes he chose to write about the infantry as a group, Pyle wished his focus to be on the individual.”
“When Pyle’s life was taken by a bullet that struck him on the left temple, word spread quickly. He was deeply mourned by the nation, from children to the newly inaugurated president, Harry Truman.”
Related Link
http://www.georgeaugustkoch.com/
Episodes will be rebroadcast on KCET in Los Angeles, California all day this Sunday, September 30, beginning at 10:00 AM.
For detailed information about the series, and TV Schedules across America, click on http://www.pbs.org/thewar/.
For the Los Angeles based KCET TV Schedule, click http://www.kcet.org/.
You may read more about Ken Burns, Lynn Novick (co-producer of The War), Geoffrey C. Ward (the writer), and others, by clicking http://www.florentinefilms.com/.
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Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, appreciates your thoughts and comments.