A compliance with the minutiae of military courtesy is a mark of well-disciplined troops.
We are all members of the same great family … On social occasions the formality of strictly military occasions should be relaxed, and a spirit of friendliness and goodwill should prevail.
MajGen John A. Lejeune
We’re not accustomed to occupying defensive positions. It’s destructive to morale.
LtGen H. M. “Howlin’ Mad” Smith, Iwo Jima, 1945
Don’t you forget that you’re Marines- First Marines! Not all the communists in hell can overrun you!
Col Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, rallying his 1st Marines near Chosin Reservoir, Korea, December 1950
The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.
Douglas MacArthur
Here’s a news flash: No soldier gives his life. That’s not the way it works. Most soldiers who make a conscious decision to place themselves in harm’s way do it to protect their buddies. They do it because of the bonds of friendship – and it goes so much deeper than friendship.
Eric Massa
But to the fighting soldier that phase of the war is behind. It was left behind after his first battle. His blood is up. He is fighting for his life, and killing now for him is as much a profession as writing is for me.
Ernie Pyle
All you have to do is hold your first soldier who is dying in your arms, and have that terribly futile feeling that I can’t do anything about it… Then you understand the horror of war.
Norman Schwarzkopf
I come from the slums; I come from a hard background; I come from a poor family; and I was a soldier.
I learned about life before I went into the theater, which is why I’ve been so happy. I was a soldier.
Michael Caine
There’s nothing like being a soldier for confidence or learning your limits or enduring utter humiliation.
Guy Davenport
When you join the army, you are asked to lay down your life for your country. That is a tremendous oath to take. In return, a good country should offer that soldier every possible means it can to allow that soldier to stay alive and, upon return, healthy – both mentally and physically.
Michael Winter
