Tag: Military

Quotes November 29, 2024

“You can’t make good decisions unless you have good information and can separate facts from opinion and speculation.”
“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.”
Colin Powell
 
 
 
 
Those who served, and those who continue to serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard took an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and we can never forget the importance of their commitment to our Nation.
Robin Hayes
 
 
 
 
I think in the wake of Katrina, the Coast Guard may well have been the only entity or agency that came out of that exercise free of fault and free of blame.
Howard Coble
 
 
 
 
My nickname, when I was 15 years old in the Coast Guard, they called me ‘Hollywood’ because I went to the movies all the time. It was such great escapism. That’s why I ran away from home.
Tab Hunter
 
 
 
 
The discovery of the Terror in, of all places, Terror Bay, on the southwest coast of King William Island, was the culmination of years of exertions by the Arctic Research Foundation (ARF) in collaboration with the Royal Canadian Navy, the Coast Guard, Parks Canada, the Canadian Hydrographic Service, the Canadian Ice Service and other agencies.
Terry Glavin
 
 
 
 

Quotes November 15, 2024

“I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American.”
Daniel Webster
 
 
 
 
“Let me ask you, sir, when is the time for brave men to exert themselves in the cause of liberty and their country, if this is not?”
George Washington
 
 
 
 
“He who is brave is free.”
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
 
 
 
 
“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”
Harry Truman
 
 
 
 
“National honor is the national property of the highest value.”
James Monroe
 
 
 
 
“We’re blessed with the opportunity to stand for something — for liberty and freedom and fairness. And these are things worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to. And we have good reason to be hopeful and optimistic.”
Ronald Reagan
 
 
 
 

Quotes November 08, 2024

“A man’s pride can be his downfall, and he needs to learn when to turn to others for support and guidance.”
Bear Grylls
 
 
 
 
Unselfishness, as far as you are concerned means simply this – you will put first the honour and interests of your country and your regiment; next you will put the safety, well-being and comfort of your men; and last – and last all the time – you will put your own interest, your own safety, your own comfort.
Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim, Courage and other Broadcasts,1957
 
 
 
 
…leaders under pressure must keep themselves absolutely clean morally. The relativism of the social sciences will never do. They must lead by example, must be able to implant high-mindedness to their followers, and must have earned their followers’ respect by demonstrating integrity.
Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale, 1987
 
 
 
 
People think that the follower serves the leader. But that isn’t true. The leader and the follower both serve the mission.
Ira Chaleff
 
 
 
 
A [unit’s] quality, its discipline, its training will depend on your leadership. Whatever deficiencies there are must be charged to your failure and incapacity.
General George C.Marshall, 1941
 
 
 
 
The good military leader will dominate the events which surround him; once he lets events get the better of him he will lose the confidence of his men, and when that happens he ceases to be of value as a leader.
Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, The Art of Leadership, 1958
 
 
 
 
It is absolutely necessary…for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders.
George Washington
 
 
 
 

Quotes September 20, 2024

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
 
 
 
“…It is a proud privilege to be a soldier – a good soldier … [with] discipline, self-respect, pride in his unit and his country, a high sense of duty and obligation to comrades and to his superiors, and a self confidence born of demonstrated ability.”
George S. Patton Jr.
 
 
 
 
“The Japanese fought to win – it was a savage, brutal, inhumane, exhausting and dirty business. Our commanders knew that if we were to win and survive, we must be trained realistically for it whether we liked it or not. In the post-war years, the U.S. Marine Corps came in for a great deal of undeserved criticism in my opinion, from well-meaning persons who did not comprehend the magnitude of stress and horror that combat can be. The technology that developed the rifle barrel, the machine gun and high explosive shells has turned war into prolonged, subhuman slaughter. Men must be trained realistically if they are to survive it without breaking, mentally and physically.”
E.B. Sledge, With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa
 
 
 
 
“US General Mathew Ridgeway was speaking about “Operation Vulture”. He said, “When the day comes for me to meet my maker and account for my actions, the thing that I would be most proud of is the fact that I fought against and perhaps totally prevented the carrying out of one of the most hare-brained tactical schemes that would have cost the lives of thousands upon thousands of men!”

“On the 30th of April 1975, American helicopters flew out of Saigon in an ignominious retreat as the tanks of the People’s Liberation Army of Vietnam rumbled into the grounds of the American Embassy in Saigon.”
Michael G. Kramer
(A Gracious Enemy & After the War Volume Two)
 
 
 
 

Quotes September 06, 2024

Some guys put their faith in Jesus, others put their faith in Buddha, my faith was in my comrades. When it was not enough, I tried prayer.
Robert Stark,
US Army
 
 
 
 
“Without a word this uniform also whispers of freezing troops, injured bodies, and Americans left forever in foreign fields. It documents every serviceman’s courage, who by accepting this uniform, promises the one gift he truly has to give: his life. I wear my uniform for the heritage of sacrifice it represents and more. I wear my uniform with pride, for it represents the greatest nation of free people in the world.”
Captain Karen Dorman Kimmel
 
 
 
 
“The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there.”
Unknown
 
 
 
 

Quotes August 16, 2024

“No man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation.”
General Douglas MacArthur
 
 
 
 
Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.
John Dickinson
 
 
 
 
These fallen heroes represent the character of a nation who has a long history of patriotism and honor – and a nation who has fought many battles to keep our country free from threats of terror.
Michael N. Castle
 
 
 
 
Armies can notonlydefend their countries- they can build them.
John F. Kennedy
 
 
 
 
WE NO LONGER differentiate in an ultimate sense between Army, National Guard, and Reserve forces. Every energy…. is bent to the development of the Army of the United States. Our purpose is to think only of the American citizen who is to be a soldier in that Army and to prepare him in time of peace for duties in war.
General John J. Pershing
 
 
 
 

Quotes August 09, 2024

Armies can not only defend their countries – they can build them.
John F. Kennedy
 
 
 
 
I’m glad I’m in the Army, not only for the people who are in it and for the breadth of experience which it offers, but because of the feeling I have of belonging to an outfit which really matters, one which has a mission of tremendous significance.
General Maxwell D. Taylor
 
 
 
 
Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry!
Colonel Valentine Blacker
 
 
 
 
Get there first with the most men.
General Nathan Bedford Forrest
 
 
 
 
Go sir, gallop, and don’t forget that the world was made in six days. You can ask me for anything you like, except time.
Napoleon Bonaparte
 
 
 
 

Quotes July 19, 2024

“I have only two out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold.”
(First Lieutenant Clifton B. Cates, USMC, 96th Co., Soissons, 19 July 1918.)
 
 
 
 
“They (Women Marines) don’t have a nickname, and they don’t need one. They get their basic training in a Marine atmosphere, at a Marine Post. They inherit the traditions of the Marines. They are Marines.”
(Lieutenant General Thomas Holcomb, USMC, 1943.)
 
 
 
 
“I can at least go out and defend my country and do something honorable as a father. Show my son something good.”
Joshua Hernandez, who joined after 9/11, and deployed to Iraq twice
 
 
 
 
“I just wanted to do something to support those young people.”
Matthew Niblack, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran who joined the National Guard as a sergeant with an age wavier in his early 50s and deployed to Kuwait.
 
 
 
 
“This is all normal, routine stuff. Dude with the AK that I shot in the street? That’s routine. The dudes digging an IED? That’s an everyday occurrence.”
An Army lieutenant whose platoon I embedded with in Iraq in 2007
 
 
“What can we do to support the troops? Give them a nation that is worthy of protection.”
Two-tour Army veteran who emailed me when I was writing an article for The Atlantic in 2007
Bill Murphy Jr.
 
 
 
 

Quotes July 05, 2024

“Patriotism is not short, frenzied outburts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”
Adlai Stevenson
 
 
 
 
“Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.”
Charles de Gaulle
 
 
 
 
“Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
 
 
 
 
“What I can do for my country, I am willing to do.”
Christopher Gadsden
 
 
 
 
“I believe our flag is more than just cloth and ink. It is a universally recognized symbol that stands for liberty, and freedom. It is the history of our nation, and it’s marked by the blood of those who died defending it.”
John Thune
 
 
 
 
“Over all our happy country over all our Nation spread, is a band of noble heroes–is our Army of the Dead.”
Will Carleton
 
 

Quotes June 14, 2024

We’d been going backwards and upside down, didn’t really see the Earth or the Sun, and when we rolled around and came around and saw the first Earthrise. That certainly was, by far, the most impressive thing.
William Anders,
US Air Force major general, engineer, astronaut who photographed “Earthrise”
1933-2024
 
 
 
 
“I have found adventure in flying, in world travel, in business, and even close at hand… Adventure is a state of mind—and spirit.”
Jacqueline Cochran
 
 
 
 
“The discipline which makes the soldiers of a free country reliable in battle is not to be gained by harsh or tyrannical treatment. On the contrary, such treatment is far more likely to destroy than to make an army. It is possible to impart instruction and give commands in such a manner and such a tone of voice as to inspire in the soldier no feeling but an intense desire to obey, while the opposite manner and tone of voice cannot fail to excite strong resentment and a desire to disobey. The one mode or the other in dealing with subordinates springs from a corresponding spirit in the breast of the commander. He who feels the respect which is due to others cannot fail to inspire in them respect for himself; while he who feels, and hence manifests, disrespect toward others, especially his subordinates, cannot fail to inspire hatred against himself.”
LTG John M. Schofield, 1879