Col. Thomas A. Pecina, commanding officer of Headquarters

Col. Thomas A. Pecina, commanding officer of Headquarters & Support Battalion, Marine Corps Installations Pacific-Marine Corps Base Camp Butler, Japan, speaks on the accomplishments of American war correspondent Ernest T. “Ernie” Pyle’s accomplishments during a memorial ceremony April 19, at the Ernie Pyle Monument on Iejima, Okinawa. Okinawa citizens, service members, veterans, Boy Scouts, and families gathered to honor the 70th anniversary of Pyle’s death at the sight where he was killed in 1945 during the battle of Okinawa. Pyle was a Pulitzer Prize winner and served as a war correspondent from 1935 through most of World War II, famous for his columns in the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain. Pyle volunteered to deploy with the men of the Army’s 77th Infantry Division to report first-hand during the battle of Okinawa. “Ernie Pyle was a man who was down with the troops in the trenches and under enemy fire,” said Pecina. “He told the story of a fighting man the way a fighting man would want it to be told.”