Quotes January 11, 2019

Where is the prince who can afford so to cover his country with troops for its defence, so that ten thousand men descending from the clouds might not, in many places, do an infinite deal of mischief before a force could be brought together to repel them?
Benjamin Franklin, 1784
 
 
 
 
The secret of the Paratrooper’s success can be summed up in three words; comradeship, esprit de corps & efficiency.
Major Rudolf Böhmler, German paratrooper in WW2, Cassino.
 
 
 
 
Close combat, man to man, is plainly to be regarded as the real basis of combat.
Carl Von Clausewitz
 
 
 
 
When they say “special operations“, they are not kidding: these people are special. From an operational standpoint, physiological standpoint, they can do things that nobody else can do.
Dennis Grahn, Senior Research Scientist, Stanford University, in the National Geographic’s TV documentary Fight Masters: Special Forces
 
 
 
 
“It is war that shapes peace, and armament that shapes war.”
Thomas Fuller
 
 
 
 
“A private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses a war.”
LT. COL. Paul Yingling, 3rd Armored Cavalry
 
 
 
 
“One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda.”
General Douglas MacArthur
 
 
 
 
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again. Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt
 
 
 
 
Praise be to the LORD my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
Psalm 144:1 Bible (NIV)
 
 
 
 

You have never lived ’til you’ve almost died. For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the protected will never know.
Unknown