Ernie Pyle, namesake of the IU building that used to house the School of Journalism, was honored on Veterans Day with a statue in his hometown of Dana, Ind.
Pyle became famous during World War II by writing about the common soldier. He died in 1945 when he was hit with Japanese gunfire while covering a battle.
The statue is outside the Ernie Pyle World War II Museum in Dana, which is about 30 miles north of Terre Haute.
There is also a statue of Pyle outside of Franklin Hall at IU. The Journalism School, which moved from Ernie Pyle Hall to Franklin Hall, was folded into what is now the Media School.
The new statue of Pyle is the first part of the Ernie Pyle & Veterans Memorial Park.
Sculptor Bill Wolfe depicts Pyle sitting on sandbags.
"Anytime I work on a piece, I do a lot of research, and especially with Ernie, there were a lot of photos because of his fame," Wolfe said. "So I was able to look at those photos, and usually Ernie would be sitting on sandbags and he would have a lot of soldiers all around him because everybody, all the soldiers, wanted their picture taken with Ernie Pyle."
