Military Service Quotes

“Fuckin’ Call of Duty. Older generations actually went off to war and fought shit worth fighting for, meeting and overcoming horrors that made them into men; now less than 1 percent of Americans enlist and your average guy in his twenties, Ray included, would probably have a helluva lot more pride in their performance playing that particular, stupid franchise.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“Why did people like us have to fight on the opposite side of the planet while the President got to sit stateside in the safety of his white mansion?”
― Karie Fugett, Alive Day: A Memoir

“Most people today couldn't tell a bombardier from a brigadier" - said during a lecture in aid of the Army Benevolent Fund in 2009”
― Richard Holmes, Soldiers: A History Of Men In Battle

“Somebody needs to be in charge! They may not always like what you’re doing,
but press on!”
― Deborah L. Parker, Hardcore Leadership: 11 Master Lessons from My Airborne Ranger Uncle's "Final Jump"

“In response to a a comprehensive VA survey taken in 1980, 91% of respondents who had seen combat in Vietnam reported that they were glad they had served their country. A healthy 80% disagreed with the statement that the US took advantage of me. Two out of three said they would go to Vietnam again – even knowing how the war would end.”
― Mackubin Thomas Owens

“Military service is not just a vocation. It is a way of life, an attitude that you carry in your heart even after you are discharged.”
― Carlos Wallace

“In faith I have a renewing account of Personal Courage which I'll write checks against until this country's most valuable natural resource the Soldier, Sailor, Marine, and Airman are fully supported with the level of dignity and respect we've earned. These checks don't bounce.”
― Donavan Nelson Butler, Master Sergeant US Army

“A commanding officer once told his men prior to a proficiency test that without enthusiasm for one’s work a soldier is dead from the neck up and soon will be dead–period.”
― Colonel Don Wilson, Code Name: William Tell

“We have heard so many different rumors, about different subjects, that we are rather slow to believe anything we don't see. (Money especially.)”
― James Henry Gooding, On the Altar of Freedom: A Black Soldier's Civil War Letters from the Front

“I hated the imperialism I was serving with a bitterness which I probably cannot make clear. In the free air of England that kind of thing is not fully intelligible. In order to hate imperialism, you have got to be part of it. Seen from the outside the British rule in India appears—indeed, it is—benevolent and even necessary. . . . But it is not possible to be a part of such a system without recognizing it as an unjustifiable tyranny.”
― George Orwell

“Fellow veterans, you served; you deserve. You earned your VA disability benefits by serving our country.”
― Brian Reese

“I never really drank until I got in the Service. I didn't smoke either until I got in the Service. I got all my bad habits in the Service.
[ -- Leslie Moede who served in post WW2 Germany]”
― David Nasaw, The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II