When General Dwight Eisenhower, head of the Allied operation in Europe in World War II, read a collection of Pyle's columns from the war front, he thanked Pyle for expressing so "eloquently" the "real heroism" of the infantry soldier, which is the "uncomplaining acceptance of unendurable conditions." He said few knew of this heroism.

The letter took two months to reach Pyle in the Pacific, but he quickly responded:

I've found that no matter how much we talk, or write, or show pictures, people who have not actually been in war are incapable of having any real conception of it. I don't really blame the people. Some of them try hard to understand. But the world of the infantryman is a world so far removed from anything normal...

I've spent two and a half years carrying the torch for the foot-soldier... but I haven't made them feel what he goes through. I believe it's impossible. But I'll keep trying.