by Tim Brady
The Pyle character was played by Burgess Meredith, who later starred in Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky movies, as the trainer. The Waskow character, renamed Lieutenant Walker for the film (at the insistence of the Army), was portrayed by Robert Mitchum. Directed by William Wellman, the film garnered four Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Mitchum; it was proclaimed one of the ten best films of the year by the National Board of Review; and it was nominated by the New York Film Critics Circle for Best Picture of the Year. Like San Pietro, The Story of G.I. Joe was chosen in 2009 for preservation by the National Film Preservation Board.
Just as the movie was being completed in the late spring of 1945, and between Ernie Pyle’s death in the Pacific and the release of the movie, Riley Tidwell was tapped by the War Department public relations people to take an active role in a joint Army-Hollywood promotion of the movie. Tidwell, stationed at Camp Lee in Virginia after his European tour, had done an interview about his role in the Henry Waskow story for the public relations arm of the War Department in September 1944. His story of Waskow’s death in the battle for Hill 1205 and his part in getting Waskow’s body down the hill was picked up in a number of Texas newspapers.10
Almost a year later, Tidwell, now stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey, was once again contacted by the War Department promotional people, who ordered him to take the train to Indianapolis for the premier of the movie The Story of G.I. Joe. There followed a whirlwind press tour for Tidwell and others involved in the movie.
Tidwell was photographed with Pyle’s father and an aunt of Ernie’s. He made an appearance on Ed Sullivan’s radio program (called Vox Populi), which was being broadcast from Indiana. He went to Washington, D.C. and did a program at the National Press Club with Burgess Meredith.
He was finally discharged from the Army but continued to promote the film back home in Texas. He traveled around the state with Robert Mitchum, including to Belton and Temple, as well as to Houston and Dallas. He met Mary Lee Waskow and others in the Waskow family, while in Belton.
Riley Tidwell settled down in Houston after the war, where he became a truck driver and faithfully attended reunions of Company B in Mexia, held annually for many years. He died in 1995.
THE LAST chapter of Ernie Pyle’s World War II saga was written in the Pacific. Pyle was not wild about going. It was too far away, he was too tired, he’d been doing war correspondence for far too long, and he had plenty of business to take care of on the home front. Still, he felt an obligation to see this war to its conclusion, just as so many others involved were doing. The plus side, he told Life in an early 1945 article was that unlike in Europe, where he was always cold and miserable, “I’ll be damned good and stinking hot . . .”11
Pyle had spent the summer of 1944 following the Allied armies through France, winding up in Paris in the fall of ’44. He came home on the Queen Elizabeth to more applause from the reading public, more book business, numerous requests for appearances and interviews, movie production questions (for Pyle’s two cents, Walter Brennan would make a better Ernie Pyle than Burgess Meredith),12 and life with Jerry.
His next book Brave Men, which covered Sicily, Italy (including the Captain Waskow story), and France, came out in late fall to more praise and rave reviews, including a “Dear Ernie” note from Dwight D. Eisenhower, in which Eisenhower praises Pyle’s ability to “tell the truth about the infantry combat soldier . . . what the infantry soldier endures. . . I get so fighting mad,” writes Eisenhower, “because of the general lack of appreciation of real heroism—which is the uncomplaining acceptance of unendurable conditions—that I become completely inarticulate.”13
Pyle thanked “Dear General Ike,” and responded, in part: “. . . I’ve found that no matter how much we talk, or write, or show pictures, people who have not actually been in war are incapable of having any real conception of it. I don’t really blame the people. Some of them try hard to understand. But the world of the infantryman is a world so far removed from anything normal that it can be no more than academic to the average person.”
Jerry had a monumental breakdown as Pyle was on the verge of leaving for the Pacific theater. She had been running through manic-depressive mood swings for a few days prior to the incident, but a live-in nurse had been carefully monitoring her condition and things seemed to be under control. One morning, Pyle was visiting the dentist’s office in downtown Albuquerque. When he returned, he found the nurse outside the house, screaming and frantic. Jerry was within, soaked in her own blood. In his absence, she had taken a pair of scissors and repeatedly plunged them into her neck.
The nurse had already called for a doctor and got the scissors from Jerry. Though she had stabbed herself numerous times, no arteries had been nicked and she survived. Ernie and the nurse found a hospital in Albuquerque that would admit her that day for another lengthy stay, including shock therapy. As they waited for the ambulance, a doctor came and Jerry was sewn up and cleaned up. She asked for a cigarette from Ernie as they waited, once again, for her to be taken to the sanitarium.14
On January 15, 1945, Pyle took a Navy plane to Oahu and began reporting on the war in the Pacific. It was a different sort of combat and Pyle had trouble adjusting to its rhythms. He joined a carrier out of Guam, which was part of the fleet attacking Iwo Jima, but Pyle wasn’t involved in the landing and saw none of the fighting there. He returned to Guam and wrote a series of stories about the carrier; the articles pleased him not at all.
He made himself ready for the invasion of Okinawa as the war in Europe was coming to a close. On Easter morning, he went ashore on that island with a group of Marines who saw little action in the few days that Ernie was with them.
He returned to the ship in time to hear the news that FDR had died and then prepped for yet another landing, on a small island near Okinawa called Ie Shima. He wrote a letter to his father the night before he was to go ashore on April 17 and started a column about the end of the war in Europe, to be published as soon as that event happened. He stuck the story in his pocket, where it stayed the next day as he climbed into a Higgins boat to head into the island.
Pyle came in after the initial landing on Ie Shima and saw evidence of the fight in the form of landmined vehicles and dead Japanese. He spent the night on the island in the company of the 305th Regiment of the 77th Division of the U.S. Army—back with his beloved infantry.
The next morning, Pyle took a jeep ride with three officers of the 305th toward the village of Ie Shima. They were in a column of vehicles traveling on a road that paralleled the beach along the East China Sea. A handful of trucks and another jeep led the way up the road. Suddenly, a Japanese machine-gunner opened fire on Pyle’s ride. All four men dived out and headed for a ditch beside the road. When the shooting died down, Pyle stuck his head out to locate the others. “Are you all right?” he called.
Those were his last words.
The gunner opened fire once again, and Ernie Pyle was dead, a bullet to the left temple.15
MARY GOTH WASKOW died on February 21, 1944, a little more than three months after her son, Henry. Her heart just gave out on her.
Mother and son were celebrated together at a memorial service at the First Baptist Church in Belton three days later. The Reverend Lonnie Webb, lifelong pastor of Henry, officiated and a handful of members from the 36th, all recovering from wounds and on leave from nearby McCloskey General Hospital served as honorary pallbearers. They included Captain Judson Skiles, Sergeant Jack White, Lieutenant Warren Klinger, Sergeant Lawrence Dahlberg, and Sergeant A.J. McDonald.
Mary Goth was survived by her husband, Frank, and seven children. August, still recovering in the hospital in New Jersey, was able to make it back for the funeral.
The Reverend Webb remembered both Mary Goth and Henry to the folks at the service. He told of the letter that Henry had written on the eve of battle and mentioned its haunting opening line: “When you read this, I will have been killed in action.” The reverend said tha
t in the letter Captain Waskow had asked that in their prayers his family, “remember also my men.”
Lieutenant Klinger, from Company A, who had been wounded on the last day of Naples campaign way back in early October, gave the eulogy for Henry Waskow. Klinger, whose arm was still in a sling, remembered being comforted by Waskow as he was being carried from the field that day five months earlier. He had spent a good deal of time with Waskow before that and knew him well.
They had served in camp together, crossed the ocean on the same ship and went into Italy together. They had lived and fought together, one in Company B, one in Company A.
“He was a captain really and truly,” Klinger told the congregants, “Men under him wanted to follow him. He never gave an order. He asked his men to follow him and they did. And they all loved him.
“Very few men have had the standing Captain Waskow had with his men. I am happy to have known him, to have served with him, to have been his fellow officer.”16
Henry Thomas Waskow missed his own funeral. Or at least his remains did. They were buried in a the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery, established at Nettuno, Italy first as a temporary wartime burial ground, then as a permanent home and memorial for the bodies of the nearly 8,000 Americans who were killed in Sicily and Italy during World War II.
Back home in Belton, even before the war was over, the town named the VFW post for Henry Waskow. They also named one of the public schools for him and both still hold his name. In 1959, the family released the full text of Waskow’s last letter home and its contents added to the continuing memory of the man. He was periodically recalled at reunions of the 36th and Company B in years to come, either in conjunction with that letter or Ernie Pyle’s column.
As the years since the war have passed and those who knew Henry Waskow as a young man have themselves advanced into old age and death, the number who remember him have naturally diminished.
Still Ernie Pyle’s words have resonance.
On November 11, 2000, at the groundbreaking for the long sought Word War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., one of the guest speakers at the ceremony was actor Tom Hanks. Hanks interest in World War II extended from his role in the Saving Private Ryan to ongoing efforts at producing a number of exemplary documentaries on the war. One of the chief fundraisers and supporters of this monument, it was only natural that he should be asked to speak at the ceremony. When it came time for him to come to the microphone and honor all those who had sacrificed so much during the war, he did a simple reading from Ernie Pyle:
“In this war I have known a lot of officers who were loved and respected by the soldiers under them,” Hanks began, “but never have I crossed the trail of any man as beloved as Henry T. Waskow, of Belton, Texas . . .”17
NOTES
CHAPTER 1
1. Pyle, Brave Men, p. 20.
2. Knightley, The First Casualty, p. 326.
3. Boomhower, The Soldier’s Friend, p. 18.
4. Ibid p. 32.
5. Coyne, Columbia Journalism Review, Jan.–Feb., 2012.
6. Tobin, Ernie Pyle’s War, pp. 51, 53.
7. Ibid, p. 54.
CHAPTER 2
1. Walker, pp. 107–109.
2. Ibid, pp. 1–5.
3. Les Leggett, 36th Division chatroom notes, November 2, 2006.
4. Ibid, p. 12.
CHAPTER 3
1. Pyle, Here Is Your War, p. 172.
2. Desmond, pp. 296–300.
3. Knightley, p. 316.
4. Pyle, Here Is Your War, p. 28.
5. Ibid, p. 61.
6. Ibid, p. 102.
7. Ibid, p. 168.
8. Ibid, p. 83.
9. Ibid.
10. Tobin, p. 89.
11. Tobin, p. 54.
12. Pyle, Ernie’s War: The Best of Ernie Pyle’s World War II Dispatches, edited by David Nichols, pp. 42–44.
13. Tobin, p. 57.
14. Boomhower, p. 57.
15. Tobin, p. 62.
16. Miller, p. 191.
17. Pyle, Here Is Your War, p. 200.
18. Pyle, Here Is Your War, p. 241.
19. Ibid, p. 241.
20. Ibid, p. 242.
21. Pyle, Here Is Your War, p. 245.
22. Ibid, p. 303 (1943 edit).
CHAPTER 4
1. Walker, p. 114.
2. Interview with Bernita Peeples, Belton (Texas) newspaper, February 13, 2013.
3. Ibid.
4. Michael Lanning, “Goodbye to Captain Waskow,” Veterans of Foreign Wars, May 1981, p. 9.
5. “I Was the Captain’s Runner,” The Houston Post, April 12, 1958, clip (original page unknown).
6. “In the Services of their Country,” Belton Journal, p. 1, 7/29/43.
7. Section 6, Sweeney, Michael, Ph.D, Appointment at Hill 1205: Ernie Pyle and Henry T. Waskow, Texas Military Forces Museum, Austin (submitted as a paper at Ohio University, 1995).
CHAPTER 5
1. Pyle, Brave Men, p. 32.
2. Tobin, p. 107.
3. Pyle, Brave Men, p. 50.
4. Ibid, p. 56.
5. Tobin, p. 110.
6. Pyle, Brave Men, p. 71.
7. Ibid, p. 75.
8. “Fed Up and Bogged Down,” Ernie’s War: The Best of Ernie Pyle’s World War II Dispatches, edited by David Nichols, pp. 166–67.
CHAPTER 6
1. Walker, p. 230.
2. Blumenson, pp. 1–10.
3. Ibid, p. 10.
4. Ibid, p. 74.
5. Wagner, p. 8.
6. Baedeker, p 195.
7. Citino, Robert, “Mark W. Clark: A General Reappraisal,” World War II Magazine, June 8, 2012 (online).
8. Wagner, p. 53
9. Glenn C Clift, “A Letter from Salerno,” October 22, 1943, 36th Infantry Division Association, texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/gallery/36div.htm.
10. Walker, p. 234.
11. Ibid.
CHAPTER 7
1. Tidwell interview.
2. Jack White, “Company I, 143rd Caught Hell Near Altavilla,” radio interview transcript, KTEM, Temple, Texas, January 14, 1944, texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/gallery/36div.htm.
3. Walker, p. 240–241.
4. White, “Caught Hell,” radio interview.
5. Wagner, p 36. Kelley received the 1st Congressional Medal of Honor in Europe for this action.
6. Ibid, p. 37.
7. Ibid, p. 38.
8. Ibid, p. 55.
9. Ibid, p. 52.
CHAPTER 8
1. For more on how the 1st 143rd got this assignment, see Burrage, p. 16.
2. Burrage, p. 14.
3. Ibid, p. 15.
4. Tidwell interview.
5. See for example, Klinger quote in El Paso Herald, 2/24/44.
6. See for example, Ray Goad, pg. 19, Waskow Legend.
7. Tidwell interview.
8. Burrage, pp. 20–21.
9. Ibid, p. 20.
10. Ibid, p. 25.
11. AAR Report, p. 5.
12. “Half Mexia’s Two-Man Army Comes Home From Italy’s Rains,” Mexia Weekly Herald, May 5, 1944 (no byline).
13. Burrage, p. 23.
14. Ibid., pg. 22.
15. Some have speculated that he took the name because it sounded like Frank Capra—short and punchy; Richard Whelan, p. 81
16. Kershaw, p. 33.
17. Ibid, p. 107.
18. “Capt. Waskow’s ‘Runner’ Tells His Battle Story,” Belton Journal 9/21/44 (no byline).
19. Burrage, p. 31.
20. Walker, p. 265.
21. Burrage p. 33.
22. Walker, p. 236.
23. Burrage, p. 33.
24. Humphrey, Walter, “Home Town, Comrades Pay Tribute to Hero,” El Paso Herald Post, Feb. 24 1944.
25. Burrage, p. 34.
CHAPTER 9
1. Sweeney, section 9.
2. “Is Assigned to McCloskey,” El Paso Herald, June 1944.
3. 143rd After Action Report Copy No. 3, pp. 12–14.
4. Jack White, KTEM interview, Jan 14, 1944.
5. Tidwell interview.
6. Sweeney, section 7.
7. “Capt. Waskow Says We Can Lick Nazis Any Time Anywhere,” Belton Journal, Nov. 4, 1943, p. 1.
8. “Willie B. Slaughter Gets His German,” Mexia Weekly Herald, 12/10/43, p. 2 (no byline).
9. “Billie Sunday Tells of Action,” Mexia Weekly Herald, 11/5/43, p. 8 (no byline).
10. Baedeker, p. 186.
11. Steinbeck, p. 167.
12. Life Magazine, Oct. 18, 1943, p. 33.
CHAPTER 10
1. Huston, p. 102.
2. John Huston interview with R. Hughes.
3. Capra, p. 314.
4. Capra, The Name Above the Title, pp. 325–327.
5. Marshall interviews 466, Feb. 14, 1957.
6. Marshall 463, Feb. 14, 1957.
7. Capra, The Name Above the Title, p. 327.
8. Capra, p. 329.
9. McBride pg. 467.
10. McBride 467; Capra p. 334.
11. Capra, p. 340.
12. Maslowski, p. 80.
13. Report on Photographic Activities, p. 3.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
CHAPTER 11
1. Tobin, p. 115.
2. Miller, p. 282.
3. Ibid p. 117.
4. Tobin, p. 122.
5. Ibid p. 128.
6. New York Times 1/25/42.
7. Huston, p. 87.
8. Ambler, p. 190.
9. Report on photographic activities, p. 1.
CHAPTER 12
1. Atkinson, p. 302.
2. Ibid, p. 298.
3. Blumenson, p. 166.
4. Ibid, p. 183.
5. Ibid, pp. 186–187.
6. Atkinson, p. 303.
7. Ibid, p. 334.
8. Ibid, p. 312.
9. Blumenson, p. 232.
CHAPTER 13
1. Walker p. 268.
2. Wagner, p. 53.