OBIT: Benjamin J. PYLE, 1942, Somerset, Somerset County, PA

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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BENJAMIN J. PYLE

Private Pyle's Body Recovered
Somerset Soldier Drowned Sept. 20th - News of His Death Confirmed

  Mr. and Mrs. Martin W. Pyle of Somerset were notified by the War Department 
last Saturday that their son, Private Benjamin J. Pyle, previously reported 
missing in the line of duty, was accidently drowned on Sept. 20th when an army 
truck he was driving plunged into a river in the Panama Canal Zone; that his 
body has been recovered and interred locally.
  The official confirmation of the news of their son's death was conveyed to the 
parents by telegraph from Washington.  On the same day, Mrs. Pyle received by 
mail three letters from army comrades of Private Pyle, offering sympathy and 
condolence, and giving particulars of his sad fate and burial with military 
honors.  With the letters also came several photographs of scenes at his grave, 
filmed while the burial rites were being performed.  The official report of his 
death and burial concluded with the explanation to the bereaved parents that no 
remains of soldiers dying or killed in action outside of the borders of their 
homeland "can be transported to the United States until after termination of 
hostilities when quartermaster general Washington, D.C., orders it possible and 
upon written request of next of kin to bring the remains to the United States 
for final interment."
  Benjamin Pyle was the youngest of six sons of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Pyle, five 
of whom were in the nation's armed services.  He left high school to enlist in 
the Army September 1, 1941 and had been stationed for quite some time in Panama 
with the field artillery.
  The four soldier brothers surviving, and stationed when last heard from as 
follows, are: Sergeant Frederick Pyle and First Sergeant Glenn Pyle, both at 
Camp Livingston, La.; Staff Sergeant Joseph Pyle of Elgin Field, Florida and 
Private First Class Hamilton Pyle of Goodfellow Field, Texas.

Meyersdale Republican, October 15, 1942