It has now been several years since Vision Forum Ministries traveled to the island of Iwo Jima to chronicle the stories of our World War II fathers. Since that time we are often reminded of two things: First, the number of men still alive to tell the stories of that amazing epoch, is diminishing rapidly. Soon there will be none left. Second, even with all the publicity and documentation of the Second World War, there are still many stories left to be told, and many treasured artifacts yet to be uncovered. Today’s story on MSNBC is just one example:

MSNBC.com reports on the release of the death photo of famed WWII reporter Ernie Pyle:

NEW YORK - The figure in the photograph is clad in Army fatigues, boots and helmet, lying on his back in peaceful repose, folded hands holding a military cap. Except for a thin trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, he could be asleep.

But he is not asleep; he is dead. And this is not just another fallen GI; it is Ernie Pyle, the most celebrated war correspondent of World War II.

As far as can be determined, the photograph has never been published. Sixty-three years after Pyle was killed by the Japanese, it has surfaced — surprising historians, reminding a forgetful world of a humble correspondent who artfully and ardently told the story of a war from the foxholes.

“It’s a striking and painful image, but Ernie Pyle wanted people to see and understand the sacrifices that soldiers had to make, so it’s fitting, in a way, that this photo of his own death ... drives home the reality and the finality of that sacrifice,” said James E. Tobin, a professor at Miami University of Ohio.

Tobin, author of a 1997 biography, “Ernie Pyle’s War,” and Owen V. Johnson, an Indiana University professor who collects Pyle-related correspondence, said they had never seen the photo. The negative is long lost, and only a few prints are known to exist.

Click here to read the full story.

“When I think about the real treasures of American history that we have,” says Mark Foynes, director of the Wright Museum of World War II in Wolfeboro, N.H., “this picture is definitely in the ballpark.”