The fierce scrap on Ie Shima also claimed the life of Ernie Pyle, the famed and much-loved war correspondent, whom the GIs had nicknamed “the Soldier’s Friend.”4 During past campaigns in Africa, Italy, northern Europe, and the Pacific, Pyle had often exposed himself to serious danger while marching and living with troops in the field. The Ie Shima operation was to be his last combat assignment of the war; he had already been assigned a seat on a C-54 transport for return to the United States. On April 18, Pyle was riding with a battalion commander in the back of a jeep, on a tour of the front
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