"The cold war was insane. The stupidest thing we Americans could have possibly taken part in. The only thing more stupid would have been for us not to take part." -- Walt Smith
"A slipping gear could let your M203 grenade launcher fire when you least expect it. That would make you quite unpopular in what's left of your unit." -- In the August 1993 issue, page 9, of PS magazine, the Army's magazine of preventive maintenance
"The best form of welfare for the troops is first-class training." Field Marshal Rommel
In my experience (2Lt PWO 10/11 Hus), the most useful command that can ever be given by a junior officer is "Carry on Sergant" -- Andrew Moffatt-Vallance"
"The most dangerous man on the modern battlefield is not the one with the nastiest weapon. He's the one carrying the big radio." -- Tod L Glenn
"Humanize war? You might as talk about humanizing hell!" -- British Admiral Jacky Fisher
"Sergeants Major are terrifying forces of nature. They really run the Army, although they let the officers pretend that they have something to do with it. Very tolerant ones will even call 2nd Lieutenants "sir" on occasion." -- Douglas E. Berry
"Victory in war does not depend entirely on numbers or courage; only skill and discipline will ensure it." -- Flavius Vegetius, AD 378
Contact, a word, perhaps like no other that defines the dividing line between strategy and tactics.
"The quality of the kite matters little. Success depends upon the man who sits in it." -- Baron Manfred Von Richthofen
"Most armies are in fact run by their sergeants -- the officers are there just to give things a bit of tone and prevent warfare becoming a mere lower-class brawl." -- Terry Pratchett
"Sucessful Termanation of OPFOR Capabilities, re: Life Sustaining Operations; Originating from a Departure Line Orientated to the Vertical of the Main Battle Area."
The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness." -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
SNAFU, TARFU & FUBAR...The three sons of Murphy...
"Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory." -- General George S. Patton, Jr.
I distinctly remember a grizzled Master Chief Boatswain's Mate once saying, "Ya know why ya call a ship 'She'? It's because it costs so much money to keep her in paint and powder!"
"If you think the Reagan Administration's sale of arms to Iran was thought up to free hostages and get money for the Contras you must still believe in the Easter Bunny. We would have air dropped the stuff for free if only to keep the war going." -- Larsen Whipsnade
His troops would follow him anywhere, but only out of curiosity.
"This we'll defend" -motto of the US Army Drill Sergeant School.
"A military man can scarcely pride himself on having 'smitten a sleeping enemy;' in fact, to have it pointed out is more a matter of shame. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack, whether it be a full- scale engagement on the sea, air raids on Japan itself, or a strong attack against the main units of our fleet." -- Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, Imperial Japanese Navy, letter to Ogata Taketora, January 9, 1942.
"Avi's nannies have the souls of war-hardened Soviet paratroopers in the bodies of nubile eighteen-year-old girls." -- Cryptonomicon
"What is our aim? Victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; Victory how ever long and hard the road may be." -- Sir Winston Churchill
"You can tell the Taliban any time they come up against the U.S. Marines, they're going to die real soon." -- US Marine Cpl. Steve Cardella, quoted in the New York Post.
Friends don't let civilian friends report military affairs. It embarrasses the reporter, and grossly misleads the public. -- Laning of the TML
I'm not worried about the bullet with my name on it.
I'm worried about the million that say "to whom it may concern."
Intelligence is the world's second-oldest profession. It differs from the oldest profession in that it is more immoral and more commonly practiced by amateurs.
"We sometimes forget, but freedom isn't free." -- Johnny Spann, father of CIA officer Mike Spann, the first American casualty in the war against terror
First rule of tactical 'splosives, someone always complains about the length of the fuse. - SchlockMercenary, 20 Jan 2002
There's a place in this war for everyone. Yours just happens to be six feet under.
"You don't win by killing the enemy, but by breaking their hearts and making them run."
"Winning battles by attrition is to the art of war as a paint-by-numbers kit is to the Mona Lisa."
"Quality defeats quantity; maneuver defeats mass."
"Outsmart them. There's always a way."
You may have superior weaponry, but you're out of ammo, and I've still got plenty of rocks.
Faith and purity are inadequate substitutes for Kevlar and good cover.
"They will salute the rank, but they will only follow the man."
"When the going gets tough, the tough go cyclic." -- U.S. Army Rangers
"You actually let an officer loose with a map?"
"Eeeek." -- Megan Robertson, Former Sergeant, 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment
Infantry Officer's Basic Course: Hundreds of Second Lieutenants wandering around Ft. Benning like lost puppies, but nowhere near as cute.
"You know what the difference was between a rich Yankee and a rich Southerner? The rich Yankee paid someone to take his place in the army, and the rich Southerner outfitted his own regiment."
Q: But if officers don't do the paperwork, what are they good for?
A: Locating machinegun posts by leaping up and shouting "Charge!", of course. They're also useful as diversions for snipers, and as cheap entertainment for sergeants. The odd rare and exceptional specimen is sometimes even useful for leading troops and formulating battle plans. -- Rupert Boleyn
I favor the flamethrower as a room clearing device.
"If you're in the Army, it doesn't matter.. you have no soul, being a brainwashed killer. (I was told this by a very earnest young woman in Berkeley the other day. The look on her face when I asked why she was risking life and limb by angering a soulless killer was worthy the lecture.)" -- Douglas Berry
shirt seen at Ft. Benning in the mid eighties:
400,000 Marines.
3,000 Airborne Rangers.
You do the math...
"...the Soviets have the capability to try big projects. If there is a goal, such as when Gorbachev states that they are going to have nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the case is closed -- that is it. They will concentrate on the problem, do a bad job, and later pay the price. They really don't care what the price is. -- Victor Belenko, MiG-25 fighter pilot who defected in 1976, "Defense Electronics", Vol 20, No. 6, pg. 100
"All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us... they can't get away this time." -- Marine LTGEN Lewis 'Chesty' Puller
Remember, at the end of every grandiose plan is an Infantryman walking point.
"Y'see the _real_ reason infantry is the only arm that can take _and_ hold ground is that it's the only one that can't run away." -- Rupert Boleyn
Canada has the largest French population that never surrendered to Germany.
That's because they surrendered to the British.
"The aggressor is a man of peace. He wants nothing more than to march into a neighbouring country unresisted." -- Clausewitz
"I think the Swiss are overrated as a military power. But even the Nazis needed discrete bankers." -- Tod Glenn
"You people were LOUSY on the drill field yesterday! You ain't even a mob -- a mob's got a leader. You clowns are a HERD! I'm gonna hafta get me a SHEEPDOG!" -- Jack Webb as TSGT Moore, from the movie The D.I
"Belly! You too skinny! Get doownn, Belly, get down! Don't cheat your body - do diamond push-ups!" - Drill Sergeant Chin (A-7-1), as my personal Satan, -- Douglas Berry
The First Rule of French Warfare: "French armies are victorious only when not led by a Frenchman."
The Second Rule of French Warfare: " France only wins when America does most of the fighting."
The Third Rule of French Warfare: "You can never surrender too early or too often."
"A properly balanced sword is the most versatile weapon for close quarters ever devised: a sword never jams, never has to be reloaded; it is always ready." -- Robert Heinlein
"U.S. trainers often experience frustration obtaining a decision from an Arab counterpart, not realizing that the Arab officer lacks the authority to make the decision - a frustration amplified by the Arab’s understandable reluctance to admit that he lacks that authority. This author has several times seen decisions that could have been made at the battalion level concerning such matters as class meeting times and locations referred for approval to the ministry of defense. All of which has led American trainers to develop a rule of thumb: a sergeant first class in the U.S. Army has as much authority as a colonel in an Arab army." -- Norvell B. De Atkine
Les primates capitulards qui mangent du fromage.
You grasp the Zen of the Sniper. "Taking fire is not my job." -- Doug Berry
"Why do you think most military bases are in the South?"
"I dunno. 'Cause it's hotter and there's way more snakes and bugs?"
"Nope. Army of occupation."
"I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me." -- General George S. Patton
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." --Norman Schwartzkopf
"When I was [in Iraq] in '91, we came to define the term "buttload" as the amount of surrendering vertical Iraqis you place in the back of a 20-ton dump truck and send to the PW collection point (number averaged about 110)." -- Michael Sayer
"Internationally acknowledged conditions for a "just war" include: just cause; right authority; right intention; reasonable hope of success; proportionality of good achieved over harm done; efforts made to protect non-combatants; and aim to achieve a justly ordered peace." -- Derrin Smith
The pen is migthier then the sword but the bayonet gets the point across.
"This trip is gonna make LSD seem like aspirin." -- The Green Berets
"Asking fighter pilots anything is pretty useless... it's either classified, or they lie like theives." -- Doug Berry
"We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last 100 years and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in." - Secretary of State Colin Powell
"We did fix bayonets because I believe bayonets kill people and are useful ... It certainly saved my life." -- Major John Kizzely, Scots Guards, Falkland Islands
"The "fierce firefight" referred to in the [New York Times] editorial concerned a battle in Nasiriyah in which American troops took an entire city with nine casualties. That's what most people call a "triumphal ass-kicking."" -- Ann Coulter
"We figured out that getting shot at really wasn't that bad. It was the getting shot part that sucked." -- US Army Staff Sgt. Jamie Viiafane on being wounded
Story I heard: two French Admirals berating a US Naval Attache. "Why must we speak to you in English. Why don't you have to learn French instead of our having to learn English?"
"Maybe because we arranged it so you didn't have to learn German?" -- Jerry Pournelle, Friday April 4, 2003.
"God knows that we've got things we've got to perfect in this country. But there's enough people downplaying it right now. I want to go so far against that. I want to thank the President. I want to thank the troops and say God bless you for doing the tough job which allows us to sit here and do the easy jobs, like be on the Tonight Show." -- Dennis Miller praising US Troops in Iraq.
"Their drills are bloodless battles, and their battles bloody drills." -- Flavius Josephus, speaking of Roman training methods
"During a rotation on Planet Irwin, I asked our cool LT about women in the infantry. He pointed out that we spent most of our time exhausted, smelly, and coated with dust our mud, so he didn't think that dust was going to be a problem." -- Doug Berry
"They appear willing to die. We are trying our best to help them out in that endeavour" -- USMC Brigadier-General John Kelly on the foreign terrorists 'assisting' Saddam Hussein.
"The United States military is now evolving geometrically as it gains experience from near-constant fighting and grafts new technology daily. Indeed, it seems to be doubling, tripling, and even quadrupling its lethality every few years. And the result is that we are outdistancing not merely the capabilities of our enemies but our allies as well - many of whom who have not fought in decades - at such a dizzying pace that our sheer destructive power makes it hard to work with others in joint operations." -- Victor Davis Hanson
"Soldier to Soldier, rendering honor and respect! Our allies, our comrades, those who know the price that some have to pay for freedom did not have to be asked or prompted, it came from their character and soldiering heart! May God bless and watch over all soldiers and their loved ones as they stand in harm's way for us! Blessings and Peace," -- CH (COL) DAVID E.MCLEAN, CHIEF, PASTORAL SERVICES
Campaign ribbon: I was there.
Medal for valor (Bronze Star, Silver Star, etc): I was there, did something really stupid that worked, and my side saw me do it.
Purple Heart: I was there, did something really stupid, and the enemy saw me do it.
What part of "This side towards enemy" did you not understand?
"Cluster bombing from B-52s is very, very accurate. The bombs always hit the ground."
"Since I came from a country [the USSR] guilty of the worst tyranny on earth, I am particularly able to appreciate the meaning, the greatness and the supreme value of that which you are defending. So, in my own name and in the name of many people who think as I do, I want to say, to all the men of West Point, past, present and future: Thank you." -- Ayn Rand, Speech At West Point, 1974
"Captain is the best military rank, low enough to be immediately involved, yet not high enough to be removed from the nitty gritty. A captain is important enough to influence matters, but not yet so high as to be irrelevant." -- Lt. Col. Jeff Cooper, USMC Ret.
"People sometimes ask me, how I can bring myself to jump from a perfectly good airplane? I tell them every airplane I've ever jumped from belonged to the United States Air Force, so that's not a consideration." - Christopher Thrash
"Frankly, if the Air Force wants their people to be camoflaged, they to develop a uniform that looks like the inside of the O-Club." -- Mark F. Cook
"ON THE EIGHTH DAY GOD CREATED THE UNITED STATES ARMY AND THE DEVIL STOOD AT ATTENTION"
"If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, thank a soldier."
"One of the serious problems in planning against American doctrine that the Americans do not read their manuals nor do they feel any obligations to follow their doctrine." -- From a Russian military document
"The reason that the America army does so well in wartime is that war is chaos and the American army practices chaos on a daily basis." -- A German General Officer
"We lost the [Vietnam] war when the Democrat-controlled Congress specifically banned all military aid to Vietnam, and a beleaguered Republican president signed it into law." -- Orson Scott Card
"Professional armies are deliriously expensive to maintain in peacetime, but they can save your bacon when you need them." -- Michael A. Cessna
"If a man does his best, what else is there?" -- General George S. Patton
"I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom." -- General George S. Patton
"In forty hours I shall be in battle; with little information; and on the spur of the moment will have to make the most momentous decisions; But I believe that one`s spirit enlarges with responsibility and that; with God`s help; I shall make them; and make them right." -- General George S. Patton
"If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking." -- General George S. Patton
There is no better friend and no worse enemy than the U.S. Marine Corps.
"In war there is no substitute for victory." -- Douglas MacArthur
"Diplomats are just as essential in starting a war as soldiers are in finishing it." -- Will Rogers
ETS. Estimated Termination of Service orders, also known as Echo Tango Suitcase!
"The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank GOD for the United States Marine Corps." Eleanor Roosevelt, 1945
"Marines are about the most peculiar breed of human beings I have ever witnessed. They treat their service as if it were some kind of cult, plastering their emblem on almost everything they own, making themselves up to look like insane fanatics with haircuts to ungentlemanly lengths, worshipping their Commandant almost as if he were a god, and making weird animal noises like a band of savages. They'll fight like rabid dogs at the drop of a hat just for the sake of a little action, and are the cockest sons of bitches I have ever known. Most have the foulest mouths and drink well beyond man's normal limits, but their high spirits and sense of brotherhood set them apart and, generally speaking, the United States Marines I've come in contact with are the most professional soldiers and the finest men I have ever had the pleasure to meet." -- An Anonymous Canadian Citizen
"Heros happen because someone made a mistake."
"We put the SAS deep into enemy territory...they let us know what was going on out there. They were our eyes." -- General H. Norman Schwartzkopf, Supreme Commander, Allied Forces during the Gulf War, 1991
"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash." -- General George S. Patton
"Qui Desiderat Pacem, Praeparet Bellum" -- Flavius Vegetius Renatus, 3rd Century BC
REMF: Military acronym that starts with "Rear" and "Echelon" and goes downhill from there.
"Non sibi sed patriae" -- "Not for self, but country" - engraved over to the doors to the Chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy
"We know we can't beat you on the battlefield, but we can beat you on the streets of New York Washington, D.C., and San Francisco." -- North Vietnamese camp commander, Son Tay POW camp to Commander Paul Galanti, U.S. Navy, American POW.
"I personally didn't see personal atrocities in the sense I saw someboy cut a head off or something like that." -- Lt (j.g) John F. Kerry on his own 1971 Senate testimony.
"There is one tactical principal which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wounds, death and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time." -- General George S. Patton Jr.
"For those who have fought for it, freedom has a flavor the protected will never know." -- Unknown
"To lead uninstructed people to war is to throw them away." -- Confucius 480 B.C.
"We make war that we may live in peace." -- Aristotle 325 B.C.
"Those who beat their swords into plows plow for those who didn't." -- Anonymous
"In war there is no second prize for the runner-up." -- General Omar Bradley 1950
"To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." -- George Washington 1790.
"Weapons are an important factor in war, but not the decisive one; it is man and not materials that counts." -- Mao Tse-tung 1938
"Only one military organization can hold and gain ground in war-a ground army supported by tactical aviation with supply lines guarded by the navy." -- General Omar Bradley 1951
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