Scholars travel to Ernie Pyle museum, birthplace
By Jozie Barton
Editor’s note: The freshman class of the Ernie Pyle Scholars program traveled to Dana, Indiana, Sept. 26 to visit the Ernie Pyle World War II Museum.
The Ernie Pyle World War II Museum in Dana, Indiana, proved to be quite an experience this year. As someone who is rather uninformed about all things Pyle, I went in knowing it would at least be educational. Little did I, or my peers, know how much of an impact our time at the museum would have.
Now, I could go into full detail about everything we saw and did, but that is not the point of this post. The point is to convey what the group took away from our time at the museum. I think two of my fellow scholars summed up their experiences, and the experience of the group as a whole, quite eloquently.
“The trip to Dana was powerful beyond accurate explanation. To see Ernie Pyle’s home and learn about his early years gave me hope that I, too, may one day affect the world in such a positive way,” said Emily Miles, an Ernie Pyle Scholar. “He and I come from humble places but have big dreams, and I think that he’s proof that those dreams can become reality. In addition, I gained an even greater respect for the man who lost his life in an effort to help others. In seeing his bed and his clothes, he was humanized. I saw in those things an actual life, not just a story and a legend. I saw an actual death with great significance.”
“The amount of detail visible in the museum and discussed by the tour guides about both Ernie Pyle’s life at home and his work during the war were just remarkable,” Sarah Gardner said. “All the stories and snippets of what he saw and did just really amazed me. I didn’t know very much about Pyle, and so discovering all of these things about him was a really cool experience. I loved looking at all of the pictures of him.”
Gardner said it was a strange realization to see Pyle’s home and belongings because it made him more real in her eyes. The trip inspired her to live up to the namesake of the scholars’ group because it brought to light how much he achieved.
At the end of the day, our trip to the museum was much more thought provoking than we had anticipated. We all learned a great deal not only about Ernie Pyle, the war correspondent, but also Ernie Pyle the man. We will forever carry this knowledge with us during our time at Indiana University and into our future careers. There was definitely nobody else quite like Ernie.
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