A 7th Infantry Division soldier is looking at a Japanese A6M5 Zero aircraft, found on a captured airfield on Marshall Islands; South Pacific ocean, February 1944.  
The Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" is a long-range  carrier-based fighter with  excellent maneuverability; The Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (IJNAS) also frequently used it as a land-based fighter. The official Allied reporting name was "Zeke" 


Captured Zero fighter plane

Ernest Taylor Pyle was a Pulitzer Prize - winning American journalist and war correspondent who is best known for his stories about ordinary American soldiers during World War II. He was killed by enemy fire on Iejima (then known as Ie Shima) during the Battle of Okinawa; April 18, 1945.
In tribute to their friend, the men of the 77th Infantry Division - with whom he served - erected a monument that still stands at the site of his death.[

The site where he died

U.S. soldiers view captured intact Japanese A6M5 Zero fighter planes at Aslito Airfield on the southern end of the island of Saipan, Mariana Islands; July, 1944. 