By: Mark Jewell, Associated Press Writer (AP) Ernie Pyle, famous to millions as a World War II correspondent, has been memorialized in miniature as a G.I. Joe doll.
The $20, 12-inch likeness of the Scripps Howard reporter was sent this week to stores as part of Hasbro's "G.I. Joe D-Day collection" to mark Thursday's 58th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
But what would the reporter think about his new fame?
"I think Ernie Pyle would be appalled to have a doll made of himself," said Owen V. Johnson, a journalism historian at Indiana University who is compiling some of Pyle's wartime letters for a book.
Even Hasbro marketing director Derryl DePriest concedes Pyle might not want to be an action figure. "He really considered the heroes to be those men he wrote about," DePriest said. "But in doing what he was doing, Ernie Pyle was just as much a hero."
Hasbro took pains to make the figure historically accurate, using photographs to recreate Pyle's facial features. The doll dresses Pyle in a utility cap, jacket, pants, and boots with accessories that include a portable typewriter, a trench-digging shovel, gas stove, and a small newspaper.
The D-Day collection also features dolls representing each of the three U.S. Army divisions that landed at Omaha and Utah beaches; a British Royal Marine commando doll; and a U.S. Army ranger.
Pyle, a native of Dana, Ind., began working at the
LaPorte (Ind.)
Herald after leaving Indiana University in 1923, just short of finishing a journalism degree.
A few months later he joined the staff of the
Washington (D.C.)
Daily News, part of the Scripps Howard chain. He eventually became that paper's managing editor before becoming a roving columnist for Scripps Howard during World War II.
He became the eyes and ears for millions of readers on the home front when he landed in Europe hours after the D-Day invasion.
Pyle was killed at age 44 by Japanese gunfire on the South Pacific island of Ie Shima on April 18, 1945.
On the Net:
Hasbro Inc.'s G.I. Joe site: http://www.gijoe.com
Indiana Historical Society information on Ernie Pyle: http://www.indianahistory.org/heritage/pyle
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