#32: The Harlem Hellfighters, Part II (Jim Europe & The Black Death)

The US invades Sicily, and just like he was for North Africa, Pyle was there to bring the news of the front back to the home front.  But just as it does for everyone, Pyle's combat experiences begin to take a toll on his well being so he agrees to take a break, return to the US, and get some rest and relaxation. He finds little of both. What he does find is that his celebrity has grown beyond anything he could have imagined.

When he returns to Italy, he writes what is typically considered his single greatest article of the war.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Theme is Ukulele and Love Birds by emjaydabayou, with a few Waves of Hawaii added for ambiance.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Transition music are some Uke Chords by turkitron.

As always, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

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With the Allied invasion of Africa on, Ernie Pyle's fame back in the US as "the only reporter to bring the war home to us" begins to grow. In just six month's time his column is pick up by more than one hundred additional newspapers and his daily readership increases by nearly six and a half million people. He continues to write human interest pieces about the soldiers "over there," but he also includes his own first hand accounts of loss and of the feelings that soldiers experience. He isn't writing about bravado and heroics - though there are heroes in his columns to be sure, they are just also the everyday people who have had war thrust upon them and are trying to survive.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Theme is Ukulele and Love Birds by emjaydabayou, with a few Waves of Hawaii added for ambiance.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Transition music are some Uke Chords by turkitron.

As always, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

·       The GoA website: https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com    

·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofarlingtonpodcast

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlingtonGhosts

·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsofarlington/

When World War II begins in Europe, Pyle is desperate to cover and is allowed to go to London during the Blitz where he covers one of the largest incendiary raids of the war - instead of taking shelter in a basement he stands out on a balcony!

When the US enters the war, he returns to England and then heads to Africa to cover Operation Torch - the first US offensive on the Atlantic side of the conflict.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Theme is Ukulele and Love Birds by emjaydabayou, with a few Waves of Hawaii added for ambiance.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Transition music are some Uke Chords by turkitron.

As always, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

·       The GoA website: https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com    

·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofarlingtonpodcast

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlingtonGhosts

·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsofarlington/

After Ernie Pyle married his wife, Jerry, the couple quit their jobs and drove around the US in a Model T Ford, camping out and falling in love with the Southwest. When they got back east several months later they were broke, but looking to travel again.

Pyle was invited back to his old newspaper in Washington, DC, but new responsibilities, compounded with anxiety and mental illness with both members of the relationship, soon put a strain on Ernie and Jerry's marriage, so when Pyle got the opportunity to become a roving reporter, touring the US and writing daily articles about his experiences, both he and Jerry leaped at the chance. The couple spent most of the next seven years together with that assignment, but with war raging in Europe, and their relationship suffering more and more, Pyle looks for any way to become a war correspondent.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Theme is Ukulele and Love Birds by emjaydabayou, with a few Waves of Hawaii added for ambiance.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Transition music are some Uke Chords by turkitron.

As always, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

·       The GoA website: https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com    

·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofarlingtonpodcast

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlingtonGhosts

·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsofarlington/

Born to tenant farmers in rural Dana, Indiana, Ernie Pyle looked for any way to get out of the Midwest farm country he feared he might toil away his life in. When World War II ended a month after he joined the naval reserve, he did the next best thing - enroll at Indiana University. While in school, he studied communications and journalism, and not only managed to travel to Kentucky and Michigan, but to Japan, China, and the Philippines, too. Shortly after leaving school, he was working for a daily tabloid in Washington, DC, but his wanderlust wouldn't let him stay in one place for long.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Theme is Ukulele and Love Birds by emjaydabayou, with a few Waves of Hawaii added for ambiance.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Transition music are some Uke Chords by turkitron.

As always, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

·       The GoA website: https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com    

·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofarlingtonpodcast

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlingtonGhosts

·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsofarlington/

This week we wrap up the discrition of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl crater in Oahu, Hawaii and then we will see just how closely Punchbowl and Arlington are related when in December 2023, a young sailor killed when the USS Oklahoma capsized during Pearl Harbor, and whose remains were just recently identified, was disinterred from Punchbowl and buried at Arlington.

Today's Ghost of Arlington is Navy Seaman First Class James Richard Ward, Section 81 Grave 1560.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Theme is Ukulele and Love Birds by emjaydabayou, with a few Waves of Hawaii added for ambiance.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Transition music are some Uke Chords by turkitron.

Ukulele Taps is by Al Wood.

As always, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

·       The GoA website: https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com    

·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofarlingtonpodcast

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlingtonGhosts

·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsofarlington/

This week we take a look at the history of the National Cemetery of the Pacific - also known as Punchbowl - in Hawaii, in a temporary segment I like to think of as Ghosts of the Pacific.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Theme is Ukulele and Love Birds by emjaydabayou, with a few Waves of Hawaii added for ambiance.

The Ghosts of the Pacific Transition music are some Uke Chords by turkitron.

Ukulele Taps is by Al Wood.

As always, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

·       The GoA website: https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com    

·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofarlingtonpodcast

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlingtonGhosts

·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsofarlington/

Over the last few weeks we have lost to US astronauts from the golden age of space exploration - Ken Mattingly and Frank Borman - and since I spent 42 weeks on the space race, I felt it was appropriate to take the time to eulogize those two explorers today. If you listen to end, you can find out the connection between Frank Borman, Buzz Aldrin, and one of the most iconic rock bands of all time, Led Zeppelin.

Today's Ghosts of Arlington are:
1. Navy Rear Admiral (Upper Half) Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II
2. Air Force Colonel Frank Fredrick Borman II

At the time of recording, funeral arrangements are still being made for both men.

The Space Race series introduction music is Lift Off by kennysvoice.

As always, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

·       The GoA website: https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com    

·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofarlingtonpodcast

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlingtonGhosts

·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsofarlington/

In what may be my final episode of 2023, this week we will see the end of Joseph Medicine Crow's amazing story of counting coup on the Germans and only realizing after he returns to the reservation following World War II, that he has fulfilled all the requirements to become a chief, and becomes the first Crow warrior in the reservation era (and most recent to date) to achieve that rank in the traditional way.

Today's Ghost of Arlington is Army Technician 5 Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, who is acutally enterred Apsaalooke Veterans Cemetery, Crow Agency, Big Horn County, Montana.

As always, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

·       The GoA website: https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com    

·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofarlingtonpodcast

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlingtonGhosts

·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsofarlington/  

Due to holiday and work schedules, I have decided to split the final longer episode about Joseph Medicine Crow into two shorter parts. This week, we learn a little about Medicine Crow's childhood - breaking and racing horses and leading history from pre-reservation chiefs, but also going to the so-called white man school and learning English. When he left the reservation for secondary school, and met members of 30 or 40 other tribes, he became interested in know more about the Crow so he could share those stories with other.

After graduating high school, he becomes on the second Crow to get a bachelors degree, when he graduated from Linfield University in Oregon, and the first to get a masters degree, when he graduated from the University of Southern California. He stayed at USC long enough to complete all the necessary coursework for a PhD, but World War II broke out before he could complete his dissertation.

When he was inducted into the Army, one of the officers interviewing the new inductees happened to be Medicine Crow's old roommate at Linfield. He offered Medicine Crow an officer's commission, but he declined the offer, wanting instead to rise through the ranks like his grandfather Medicine Crow had. Unfortunately, the US Army doesn't operate on Crow principles and Medicine Crow never had another change to become an officer. He said turning down his old roommate was the worst decision of his life, though it would give him the chance to emulate his warrior ancestors that he wouldn't have had otherwise.

As always, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

·       The GoA website: https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com    

·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofarlingtonpodcast

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlingtonGhosts

·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsofarlington/