joe kind of war, and i guess you are not ernie pyle. that was the image vietnam war correspondents were up against. it was pyle and the others during world war ii who had written about the g.i.'s in world war ii as heroes. and now it seemed that reporters had turned somehow anti-patriotic, sympathetic to the enemy. and that was how the military increasingly felt as a small cadre of fine reporters in vietnam began to write these stories critical of american tactics and critical of the south vietnamese regime. a key fellow at the beginning was an older correspondent named homer bigart. he had been a terrific correspondent in world war ii. and more than any of the other correspondence, he had been willing to criticize u.s. tactics and strategy in world war ii. and that took special bravery in that war. but he accomplished it. he won a lot of renown among his editors. he was not a famous name at home, but he was a reporter's reporter. he spent time in french indochina in the 1950's, got a sense of what the war was about, got a sense of the c

here we so ernie pyle in the center again, talking to a colonel of the signal corps. this is burt brandt, who we saw earlier shooting for a.p. saysle cannes, and john mcglinty, and here is -- oh, gosh, 25 years has done a lot to my memory. but the troops began to move in the opposite direction to attack the enemy on the st. lowe line. we were passing through the city of valogne, and of course it was completely destroyed. i was there several times since the war and it's been rebuild beautifully, but the germans tried to make a assistant here. wherever they did try to make a stand, we had to knock them out, and in so doing, destroyed the city. a little later o. i had an opportunity to see the construction that was built by slave labor, and all along the beach, especially in the normandy area, as well as other areas, they built these triangles. many of them had mines attacked to them so if a boat touched them, they would explode. i was told after taking this walk that i should be very careful not to step where the ground is soft. this is a church in a pretty town that ge

president truman once called ernie pyle the spokesman of the ordinary american in arms.he emphasized the human element of the war, and the patriotism of soldiers off the battlefield. professor tobin also explains how ernie pyle's work after world war ii inspired war reporters in the era of vietnam and beyond. th

i felt we had to go to old traditions, traditions of my hero, ernie pyle, the famous world war ii correspondent we as a nation are going to commit soldiers for 13 years, we doggone better be there to tell their stories day in and day out and you can't send them off and forget about it. i felt we needed to be there every day so that i could be there telling their stories, what they were enduring over long periods of time. >> woodruff: and your son said i'm coming with you, and you originally didn't think it was a great idea. >> no, no, not really. i mean, i was concerned because, you know, we've lost a lot of friends covering many different wars and this war as well, and i knew what the consequence of that could be. i mean, this is my son. but i started to realize that he was the same age as those young men and women who raised their hand and said, i will go to afghanistan, i will go to iraq to serve my nation, and this was his way to serve. he was bound and determined to do it, and that's what he did. you know, we are so close now because of this. we made it through it, and i really love my son

if you have ever heard of the great war correspondent ernie pyle, he wrote a wonderful account of what it was like to force.ed by his own air he was right there with the .ourth division when u.s. army troops go forward on july 25, they find that the germans are still in a good position to resist, unfortunately. some of those front-line positions have not been hit that hard. that a bad thing. the good news -- or rear areas have been really nailed. communications destroyed. people just destroyed. course columns destroyed. all this kind of stuff. once you get past that hard crust of initial resistance, there is room to maneuver, and collins has to make this decision. should i send them forward and really go for the kill? he does so by july 26 and july 27, and it leads to what you see on the map -- a breakthrough through that blue rectangle that beyond, bombed and on and now is where the germans are really in trouble. breakthrough in normandy in july and the kind of mobile campaign the americans have always wanted. safenot mean that it is out there. there are powerful german units moving a