Military Quotes....Add Any That You Know

[macuser1984]

"Personally, I am of the opinion that older men of experience, who have smelled powder and have been wounded, are of more value than mere youthful exuberance, which has not yet been disciplined. However, I seem to be in the minority in this belief."

-Gen George S. Patton, Jr.

[BTs_GhostSniper]

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks that nothing is worth war, is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

-John Stuart Mill (1868)

[Brutha]

Well....when GS is quoting moral philosophers I get scared....although I had you figured out for a utilitarian allready, mate  

Here is a quote from my first day in the army.

"up that hill is the base store, where you can buy your porn, chew tobacco and other less important items"

My platoon leader actually said that.

[BTs_GhostSniper]

Here is a quote from my first day in the army.
"up that hill is the base store, where you can buy your porn, chew tobacco and other less important items"
My platoon leader actually said that.

OMG...I think my Drill Sgt in Basic Training said that exact same thing.

Were/Are you in the Norwegian Army, Brutha?

[Aramarth]

Yes, he was, and he is currently in the reserves

[Brutha]

Norwegian men get drafted around the tender age of 19, so that would be 8 years ago....spent a year in Finmark at Garnisonen I Porsanger....after my period as a recruit I ended up behind a desk because of a skin decease...which made it impossible for me to be in the field....yup it is true...and not a lame excuse to get out of there. I volunteered for the test platoon of what would later become the "jaeger" batallion. I assume that you GS already know what Jaegers do. Long story short...I am now in the reserves...and get ready for this peeps....Yup the army has decided that if I have to go on drills, or in case of a war, I will be equiped with a 50 cal machinegun placed on top of a personell carrier, and I will be serving coffee to my platoon leader, being his assistant...hardly know what the 50 cal looks like but thats the norwegian army for you

[Aramarth]

"Few men are killed by the bayonet, many are scared by it. Bayonets should be fixed when the fire fight starts"
"A good plan executed today is better than a perfect plan executed at  some indefinite point in the future."
- General George Patton Jr

That second one I would direct at certain members of this community. [/shameless plug]

[Aramarth]

I should wait my turn, but these are just too good.

"I have only two men 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. "
- 1.Lt. Clifton B. Cates
USMC. In Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918


"Have you not got your bayonets?"
- Sir George Cathcart, when word came that his division was low on ammunition.

[cO.gabe]

"How fortunate for leaders that men do not think."
- Adolf Hitler


"The authority of the civil defense ... issued a warning to the civilian population not to pick up any of those pencils because they are booby traps,"

"I am not talking about the American people and the British people,
I am talking about those mercenaries. ... They have started throwing those pencils, but they are not pencils, they are booby traps to kill the children."

- The Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf

lmao

[BTs_GhostSniper]

"If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."[/color][/size]

-Thomas Paine (1737-1809)[/b]

[Ssickboy]

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was and never will be."
- Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US president, founding father, Commander and Chief

Consider that first and then,

"The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave."
- Patrick Henry, statesman

[macuser1984]

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
 
-Patrick Henry
March 23,1775

[Ssickboy]

Hey Macuser,

Nice timing with that quote.  I'm not sure how you're interpreting it, so I feel the need to respond.  In today's affairs the context applies to us much differently.  Take my icon for example, Martin Luther King died for liberty, without physically fighting for it.  For others to assume that it's necessary to physically attack in order to obtain liberty is falsely interpreting the quote.  

The context of that message coupled with physically going to battle currently applies less to our nation but in more ways to nations we are in conflict with, unfortunately.  Patrick Henry most likely would be giving a completely different message today.  

[Aramarth]

I think, to be perfectly accurate Ssick, Patrick Henry would have been saying the same thing, but instead as an Iraqi, and he would have meant it as a call to arms against Saddam. We could apply it the world over, but one thing has obviously changed. Some people are not willing to fight for liberty at the price of death, because they have not tasted liberty enough to understand it. Patrick Henry had.

What does this mean? To Mr. Bush it means taking liberty to them. To his opponents, it means waiting for them to gain the clairvoyance enough to know why they should fight for liberty, such that they fight for themselves.

Neither viewpoint is right. I hope that is obvious. You can't hand liberty to someone when they don't know what to do with it. Nor can you expect them to want it or fight for it if they do not know what it is. It is time for the world to realise that not everyone is ready and able to govern himself, much less can the average American. The solution is what then? I don't think I will answer that just now, though part of me desires it.

To apply the quote to a civil rights struggle is interesting indeed... the quote clearly shows its age in this respect. Patrick Henry knew that the English Crown would never fight a war to exterminate all of the colonial rebels. Add to that, the anti-revolutionaries were not a majority. Today however, certain people groups would indeed exterminate others, and are quite the majority without an ocean in between them and their enemy. I think these changes entirely invalidate the quote, sad to say.

To answer what Patrick Henry would say today requires a different angle. One could start with "a house divided against itself cannot stand." That quote alone tears down Iraqi, Palestinian, and other modern "freedom fighters'" hopes for victory.

[BTs_GhostSniper]

Okay, back on topic here....this is a place for Quotes, not to examine the ones left (no offense, but I think my Brother knew what Patrick Henry was saying in that quote).

Here is a new one:

"It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it."
 
-General of the Army Douglas MacArthur

[Ssickboy]

Is there life before war in your world GS?  

[BTs_GhostSniper]

Is there life before war in your world GS?  

Sure there was.  But once you have tasted combat, your life is changed forever.  There is no going back to the completely easy-going days before you saw your best friend laying beside you in pieces.

Here's another quote to keep this thing going:

"I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom."

-Abraham Lincoln
November 1864[/b]

[macuser1984]

"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom, and then lost it, have never known it again."

-President Ronald Reagan

[BFG]

Out of interest how are you defining "military" quotes... seems to be a whole mix of allsorts including politicians...

[BTs_GhostSniper]

Out of interest how are you defining "military" quotes... seems to be a whole mix of allsorts including politicians...

Anything that has anything at all to do with the military.  It doesn't have to be a direct quote from someone in the military (Like a Patton or MacArthur quote).  It just has to have something to do with the military (like my brother's quote from Ronald Reagan about defending freedom).

So, here's a new one:

"As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational art, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier. Other than that he's a great military man-I want you to know that."

-General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, 1991[/b]