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Ernie Pyle
Program Video Clip List
Clip # Start Time End Time Description
1 00:15.1 01:30.9 Excerpt from Pyle on World War II; background information also on Dana, IN, his birthplace.
2 01:33.9 02:10.0 Pyle was the most important World War II correspondent; his style characteristics.
3 03:40.0 04:06.3 Pre-World War he was a traveling newspaper columnist; columns were travel logs.
4 04:07.0 04:32.6 Pyle's own personal crisis brought him into the war.
5 04:44.8 05:19.8 Impact of World War II on small towns, like Dana, IN.
6 06:26.3 06:48.7 Pyle was most proud of his pre-World War II writings.
7 08:41.1 10:04.3 Visuals on Pyle's house; controversy surrounding his birth; came from a farming family.
8 10:36.1 10:58.4 Basic foundation of Here is Your War; compilation of columns.
9 11:14.1 11:55.0 Area surrounding Pyle's home; crops grown; Mound farm where Pyle grew up.
10 14:49.7 15:22.2 Memorials of Pyle's death; place of burial.
11 16:53.5 17:48.3 Difference between Pyle and other reporters of the 1940's; why Americans liked Pyle's writings.
12 18:14.0 19:27.2 Walter Cronkite on Ernie Pyle; Pyle understood human beings; he was an ideal front line reporter.
13 20:52.1 21.23.4 The importance of cigarettes to soldiers during war.
14 22:22.2 23:11.9 Audio excerpt of Pyle's description of the wind.
15 23:15.6 24:50.7 World War II created much disillusionment among people; Pyle was included; caused him to gravitate to the common soldier.
16 24:54.5 25:22.6 The American homefront during World War II; new car production, victory gardens, cigarettes, limits on gasoline.
17 26:49.8 27:00.7 A picture of Dana, IN; population, location.
18 28:01.1 28:47.5 America and religion in the 1940's; war's influence, how religious the country was.
19 28:47.7 30:02.1 Description of the World War II draft; who was included or excluded; the county draft boards that decided.
20 30:02.2 30:30.9 Excerpt from Pyle on the feelings of soldiers of other men left at home.
21 30:40.0 31:45.6 Degrees of separation felt by the men at home and the soldiers; on one end guilt and the other irrelevance for home.
22 32:07.8 32:25.8 Pyle not a religious man; married a non-church going woman.
23 35:48.7 36:33.6 Politics of reporters; lived with and developed relationships with soldiers; everything was censored by the government.
24 36:37.5 36:59.6 Government help to reporters; increased access to soldiers.
25 37:08.6 37:44.0 Exhibits of Pyle's belongings; typewriter, zippo lighter, clothes.
26 38:39.8 40:23.5 The importance of the Thunderbird column on a missing plane from the Air Corp in Northern Africa; reading of it.
27 40:23.6 43:58.9 Importance of Thunderbird column to one individual soldier at the time; retired Lt. Col. John Cronkhite.
28 47:46.8 48:38.9 Pyle's dealings with fame; he had maturity and wisdom to take it in stride.
29 48:47.0 49:29.7 How Pyle and other reporters got their stories back to the U.S.; safety; go through government agents; governments sent to newspapers.
30 49:42.2 50:39.9 Soldiers correspondence with back home; mail microfilmed to deal with volume; Pyle gave soldiers' names and hometowns in his columns.
31 50:51.8 52:28.0 Pyle's version of D-Day; describes the debris, machines; his column was an eyewitness literary account.
32 52:41.8 53:46.8 Description of D-Day in general; what it stood for; casualties, Omaha Beach.
33 54:08.6 54:58.9 Pyle killed on the island of Ie Shima; map of places he had been.
34 56:32.9 57:44.6 Comparison of journalism in World War II to today; includes Vietnam War and war on Afghanistan.
35 58:01.2 58:55.7 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on press access today versus in the past.
36 59:16.0 01:00:29 Audio of Pyle's D-Day column; video of beach replica.
37 01:01:42 01:02:30 Why numerous mementos were kept from the war; letter-writing nation; held entire world's focus.
38 01:02:45 01:03:25 Many soldiers remained quiet once back home; people were supportive but didn't understand the experiences.
39 01:03:56 01:04:20 Revival of World War II; movies made today.
40 01:05:34 01:06:04 The infantry and Pyle; he worked with many units but felt closest to the infantry; worked to get recognition for them.
41 01:06:18 01:07:17 Memorial in Ie Shima to Pyle and other soldiers; column on speeches officers made in tribute to him; simplicity of his language.
42 01:07:22 01:08:08 Pyle's coverage of officers versus soldiers; covered officers Omar Bradley and Dwight D. Eisenhower; disliked General Patton.
43 01:08:55 01:09:38 Economics of US during the war; war pulled us out of the Depression; prosperity; concern over future.
44 01:09:39 01:10:25 Military statistics during World War II; money sent home.
45 01:10:41 01:11:41 Fifty percent of people eligible for draft were left at home; gender and racial dimensions changed homefront.
46 01:14:14 01:15:42 Pyle's writings were down to earth; allowed readers to learn where friends and family had been and what they had been through.
47 01:15:43 01:16:24 Life for women left at home; difficulties; liberating.
48 01:17:59 01:18:20 Pyle's writings told how the individual felt; how the individual saw the war.
49 01:19:40 01:20:38 Jerry Pyle was Ernie's wife; she was mentally ill; they divorced before the war; later remarried during the war.
50 01:21:56 01:24:29 The making of the Pyle memorial in Dana, IN; finding the pieces.
51 01:26:35 01:27:42 Quote from Pyle how life at home was seen on the war front; strikes and disunity at home.
52 01:30:29 01:31:32 Circumstances around Pyle's death; covered the Navy in the Pacific on the Okinawa campaign.
53 01:31:56 01:32:51 Military handling of deaths oversees; burials; bodies; belongings; notification of families.
54 01:33:58 01:34:33 The happenings back home in the US to reinforce the notions of war; air raids.
55 01:34:45 01:35:22 People at home needed to feel they were contributing to the war; war correspondents helped do that.
56 01:35:26 01:36:00 Anti-war movement in US; Hollywood helped to combat the lack of knowledge of the American people and tell why the US was at war.
57 01:36:05 01:37:04 Pyle was asked to help in a Hollywood movie on the infantry; movie about the soldiers themselves not him.
58 01:38:36 01:39:16 Visuals of the grain elevator and railroad in Dana, IN; importance of railroads in America during World War II.
59 01:40:11 01:41:31 Anzio effort to get around German troops; Pyle's bravery and brush with death.
60 01:41:37 01:42:10 Pyle's personal information; hypochondriac; frail man.
61 01:44:24 01:45:23 Pyle saw need not to make officers or generals look good; stayed close to troops.
62 01:45:36 01:46:07 Pyle older than most of the troops; war aged a person.
63 01:46:08 01:46:24 Pyle liked Omar Bradley; he was a soldier's general.
64 01:46:32 01:46:52 Relationship between Walter Cronkite and Pyle.
65 01:46:56 01:48:04 Walter Cronkite on Pyle in today's world; Pyle's legacy of capturing the heart and soul of a soldier.
66 01:50:41 01:51:10 Pyle's time spent on the front; had to stay behind the firing line.
67 01:51:29 01:51:52 Video of telegram on Pyle's death sent to his father on April 18, 1945.
68 01:52:01 01:52:40 How telegrams worked; how they were delivered.
69 01:52:55 01:53:24 Pyle loved the soldiers; he was a lifeline to the people at home.
70 01:54:17 01:54:43 War on the West Coast; threats; Japan; fear.
71 01:54:58 01:55:35 Pyle focused on hardships to tell people to contribute; soldiers were depending on the homefront.
72 01:55:36 01:56:00 Pyle attended Indiana University from 1919 to 1923; visual of the journalism school at the university.
73 01:58:00 01:58:38 Deaths of FDR and Pyle around the same time; President Truman issued a statement on Pyle's death.
74 01:58:39 01:59:38 Visuals on the notes from officers about Pyle's death.
75 01:59:55 02:00:18 The death of many leaders in April of 1945 and the end of World War II brought much change to the world.

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