some Marine Corps and military quotes

My daughter asked, "Are you crying, dad?" "No," I lied, "Marines don't cry, our eyeballs sweat."
- don't know who said it first


During basic, Airmen go through warrior week and learn to fire a weapon, just in case the Marines aren't there.
-Katherine N. W.


I enlisted to shoot people and blow shit up, I became a DI to teach others how to shoot people and blow shit up.
-Sgt. B, a drill instructor from Parris Island


The thing is, a lot of people are anti-military until the shit hits the fan, and then the U.S. gets very supportive of its troops. There was a strong isolationist and anti-war sentiment in the U.S. before Pearl Harbor was attacked, and then almost overnight, an entire generation of men and boys enlists to die for their country. It's easy to say that soldiers aren't the kind of people we want in our society and that the military isn't a positive tool, but when another country attacks ours, I would much rather have a strong, brainwashed, well-trained armed forces ready to defend our liberty than take my chances with a bunch of pacifist peace-lovers.
-half-empty@hrunting. org


There's a huge untapped will. Everyone wants to do
something, but what they're told to do is go shop.
-Kyle Conley, a 34-year-old who joined the Marines after September 11


Most Americans don't trust their children to take out the family van on Saturday night; our Navy entrusts $50 million jets to teenagers, whose courage and maturity trump those of most adults.
-Victor Davis Hanson


To be a Marine fills you with a sense of pride so keen it almost hurts, but to be a female Marine no words can describe. To stand there in uniform with your platoon shoulder to shoulder with men and be the only woman, to know that you are one of them, that you made it is something you take with you for the rest of your life. Once a Marine, always a Marine.
-?


We don't use Marines to run supply systems across oceans and continents. We don't use our Marines to do things of a sneaky deniable nature. We use Marines when we want the whole fucking world to know that we are coming in and coming strong and they need to be finding a hole to die in.
-Thomas EM1(SS) USNR


No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country.
He won it by making the other dumb bastard die for his country.
-General George S. Patton, Jr.


Why in the hell can't the army do it if the Marines can.
They are the same kind of men; why can't they be like Marines?
-General John J. Pershing


The tree of liberty must be refreshed from
time to time with the blood of patriots...
-Thomas Jefferson


The USMC is over two hundred and twenty five years of romping, stomping, hell, death and destruction. The finest fighting machine the world has ever seen. We were born in a bomb crater, our mother was an M-16 and our father was the devil. Each moment that I live is an additional threat upon your life. I am a rough-looking, roving soldier of the sea. I am cocky, self-centered, overbearing, and I do not know the meaning of fear, for I am fear itself. I am a green, amphibious monster made of blood and guts who arose from the sea, festering on anti-Americans throughout the globe. Whenever it may arise, and when my time comes, I will die a glorious death on the battlefield, giving my life to mom, the Corps, and the American flag. We stole the eagle from the Air Force, the anchor from the Navy, and the rope from the Army. On the 7th day, while God rested, we over-ran his perimeter and stole the globe, and we've been running the show ever since. We live like soldiers and talk like sailors and slap the hell out of both of them. Soldier by day, lover by night, drunkard by choice, MARINE BY GOD!!!
- ?


We're surrounded. That simplifies our problem
of getting to these people and killing them.
-Chesty Puller at the Chosin Reservoir


We have two companies of Marines running rampant all over the northern half of this island, and three Army regiments pinned down in the southwestern corner, doing nothing. What the hell is going on?
-Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., USA, Chairman of the the Joint
Chiefs of Staff during the assault on Grenada, 1983


Marines I see as two breeds, Rottweilers or Dobermans, because Marines come in two varieties, big and mean, or skinny and mean. They're aggressive on the attack and tenacious on defense. They've got really short hair and they always go for the throat.
-RAdm. "Jay" R. Stark, USN


Some Marines testing the uniform noted that the pocket was covered by the roll of the sleeve when in garrison. This was corrected, however, when Marines observed proper regulations for rolling sleeves.
-about the new cammies (for some reason that just struck me funny)


Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference, and our Marines don't have that problem.
-President Ronald Reagan


A Marine should be sworn to the patient endurance of hardships, like the ancient knights; and it is not the least of these necessary hardships to have to serve with sailors.
-Field Marshal Montgomery


Marines are about the most peculiar breed of human beings I have ever witnessed. They treat their service as if it was 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 was 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 cockiest SOB's 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 had the pleasure to meet.
- An Anonymous Canadian Citizen


It's a funny thing, but, as years go by, I think you appreciate more and more what a great thing it was to be a United States Marine...I am a U.S. Marine and I'll be one till I die.
- Ted Williams


The Marines have landed, and the situation is well in hand.
- popularized by Richard Harding Davis


The safest place in Korea was right behind a
platoon of Marines. Lord, how they could fight.
- Major General Frank Lowe, U.S. Army


I can never see a United States Marine
without experiencing a feeling of reverence.
- General Johnson, U.S. Army


The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle.
- General Pershing, U.S. Army


The Marines and Navy have never shone more brightly than this morning.
- Gen Douglas MacArthur at Inchon landing, Korean War


The more Marines I have around, the better I like it.
- General Wesley Clark, U.S. Army


You cannot exaggerate about the Marines. They are convinced to the point of arrogance, that they are the most ferocious fighters on earth - and the amusing thing about it is that they are.
- Father Kevin Keaney, 1st MarDiv Chaplain, Korean War


The Marine Corps has just been called by the New York Times, "The elite of this country." I think it is the elite of the world.
- Admiral William Halsey, U.S. Navy


A ship without Marines is like a garment without buttons.
- Admiral David Dickson Porter


Remember, whatever you write, this was no retreat. All that happened was that we found more Chinese behind us than in front of us, so we about-faced and attacked.
- Chesty Puller, USMC, speaking to reporters after the battle at the Chosin Reservoir, Korean War


Goddamn it, you'll never get the Purple Heart hiding in a foxhole! Follow me!
- Captain Henry P. "Jim" Crowe, USMC, Guadacanal, 13 January 1943


My only answer as to why the Marines get the toughest jobs is because the average Leatherneck is a much better fighter. He has far more guts, courage, and better officers... These boys out here have a pride in the Marine Corps and will fight to the end no matter what the cost.
- 2nd Lt. Richard C. Kennard, Peleliu, World War II


Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?
- Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly leading his Marines forward against
German troops at the Battle of Belleau Wood, World War I


They're on our right, they're on our left, they're in front of us, they're behind us; they can't get away from us this time.
- Chesty Puller, USMC, Chosin Reservoir, Korean War


Casualties many,
Percentage of dead not known,
Combat efficiency,
We are winning.
- Colonel David M. Shoup, USMC, Tarawa, 21 November 1943


Every Marine is, first and foremost, a rifleman.
All other conditions are secondary.
- General A.M. Gray, Commandant USMC


...in the days preceding the war the United States possessed the world's top ranking Marine Corps at a cost to the nation of $1,500 per Marine, while it had the eighteenth place Army, at a cost of $2,000 per soldier.
- USMC Commandant Vandegrift, speaking to the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, 1946


Retreat, hell! We just got here!
- Attributed to several World War I Marine Corps officers, Belleau Wood, June 1918.


The mail service has been excellent out here, and in my opinion this is all that the Air Force has accomplished during the war.
- Chesty Puller in a letter to his wife while in Korea


Old breed? New breed? There's not a damn bit of difference so long as it's the Marine breed.

- Chesty Puller, USMC


Do not attack the First Marine Division.
Leave the yellowlegs alone.
Strike the American Army.
- Orders given to Communist troops in the Korean War.
(Shortly afterward, the Marines were ordered to not wear
their khaki leggings to keep the enemy from immediately fleeing.)


Panic sweeps my men when they are facing the American Marines!
- Captured North Korean Major


They told our perimeter guard to open up or we'll blow you away and then they looked up and saw the Marines on the roof with these really big guns and they said in Somali, "Igaralli ahow," which means, "Excuse me, I didn't mean it, my mistake."
- Karen Aguilar, U.S. Embassy, Mogadishu, Somalia, 1991


The American Marines are terribly reckless fellows...they would make very good storm troopers.
- Unidentified German officer at Belleau Wood


Marines know how to use their bayonets.
Army bayonets may as well be paper-weights.
Navy Times, November 1994


For over 221 years our Corps has done two things for this great nation. We make Marines, and we win battles.
-Gen. Charles C. Krulak, USMC (CMC), 5 May 1997


Gone to Florida to fight the Indians.
Will be back when the war is over.
-Col. Archibald Henderson, USMC (CMC);
in a note pinned to his office door, 1836


Marines die, that's what we're here for.
But the Marine Corps lives forever.
And that means you live forever.
-the mythical GySgt. Hartman, USMC; portrayed by GySgt. R. Lee Ermey, a Marine
Corps Drill Instructor using his own choice of words in Full Metal Jacket, 1987


I love the Corps for those intangible possessions that cannot be issued: pride, honor, integrity, and being able to carry on the traditions for generations of warriors past.
-Cpl. Jeff Sornij, USMC; in Navy Times, November 1994


We're not retreating, Hell! We're just attacking in a different direction!"
-General Oliver Smith, USMC


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, First Lady of the United States, 1945


Oh Lord, it's hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way.
-Mac Davis, referring to Marines


Love of war in a soldier has some value.
Love of war in a captain is of dubious value.
Love of war in a politician is criminal.
- ?


Once a Marine, always a Marine.
-MSgt Paul Woyshner, a 40-year Marine, is credited with originating
this expression during a taproom argument with a discharged Marine.


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


Being ready is not what matters. What matters is winning after you get there.
- Lieutenant General Victor H. Krulak, USMC, April 1965


I can't say enough about the two Marine divisions. If I use words like brilliant, it would really be an under-description of the absolutely superb job they did in breaching the so-called impenetrable barrier... Absolutely superb operation, a textbook, and I think it'll be studied for many, many years to come as the way to do it.
- General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 27 February 1991


Recon, SEALS, Rangers, Special Forces, etc. all beg you, on a daily basis, to please quit. Whereas the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Air Force will not just let you quit any old time you feel like it. Once you sign on the dotted line, you are stuck and they will not let you go, short of some major problem. Now, knowing you could not get out of something that you did not know you were getting into, which service would be the safer bet if you thought you might not be able to handle it? Certainly not the Marine Corps. In other words, it takes a different kind of person to join the Marines, not knowing what he is getting himself into and not knowing if he can cut it, but knowing that they ain't going to just let him walk out the door if he can't hack it. At least in the other services you can fall back on a skate job if you can't handle the spec ops end. Wannabe a SEAL? Join the Navy. Can't hack it? Then you'll end up in the regular Navy. Big deal. Want to be Recon? Join the Marine Corps? Can't hack it? Tough! Your still stuck in the Marine Corps and that ain't a skate job. Some people like to wade in, test the waters a little. Marines leave the end of the diving board and then it's too late. That could be ice cold or boiling water but you're in it.
- Charlie Cloud/CharlieGadfly


Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!"
- Sun Tzu, the Art of War


Their job is to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic ... the President's job is to identify the enemies.
- S.L. Alden



Never, never, never , never, reload on the run … unless you have to.
- Sgt Long