Death Photo of War Reporter Pyle Found

[johnastovall]

NEW YORK (AP) - The figure in the photograph is clad in Army fatigues, boots and
helmet, lying on his back in peaceful repose, folded hands holding a military cap.
Except for a thin trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, he could be asleep.

[hbwise]

Wow!

[Duffy Pratt]

He was a great writer. Library of America has a great two volume set of contemporary newspaper reports from WW2 (called Reporting World War Two). It features his writing pretty heavily, and rightfully so. The books are fascinating reading, and alot more engaging than I would have thought.

Duffy

[Citex]

Wow what an image when you hear the story.

[mdparthum]

I read the article posted on Yahoo yesterday and what I found interesting is that the photographer who took the image was awarded the Bronze Star for crawling under enemy fire to get the image and then recognized the importance of the man and the photo would have on moral. So the image was supposed to be destroyed. Then, the image was saved and/or held on to by Navy photographers/lab techs from the ship that processed the film for the Army photographers. What a great piece of history to surface especially since the last surviving Iwo Jima flag raiser passed away today or yesterday. Another great moment in photography history.

[toverman]

My grandfather was in the Coast Guard during World War II, shipboard during in the Pacific. After he was injured, he was stationed to public relations desk duty. A few years ago, I was looking through some things in his attic (he and my grandmother have passed, but my family still owns the house) and came across a trunk full of then-classified pictures.

There are photos of dead, and even though not as famous as Pyle, deserve to be remembered.