Underwood - The quotable warrior

The QuotableWarrior Compiled by Lamar Underwood An imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK Introduction and order copyright 2016 by Lamar Underwood All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Available ISBN 978-1-4930-2202-1 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4930-2203-8 (electronic) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. COL. COL.

JOHN DOUGLAS UNDERWOOD (U.S. ARMY, RETIRED)Its payback time, Dad, from the luckiest Army Brat of them allOrder of Battle Introduction......................................... 1. The Call to Battle: Fighting Words of Inspiration, Anger, and Commitment............. 2. 3. 3.

Remembering Pearl Harbor....................... 4. Under Fire....................................... 5. Uncommon Valor................................ 6.

At Ease!......................................... 7. Soldiering Through............................. 8. Nam: Words from Beyond the Wall............. 9.

The Weight of Command: Leadership and Responsibility, Battles Won and Lost............ 10. The Fallen..................................... 11. Final Battles.................................... Authors and Works Quoted.........................

Index.............................................. In the final choice, a soldiers pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoners chains. President Dwight D. Eisenhower First Inaugural Address, 1953 Introduction This book is an updated, revised, and expanded collection of quotes I originally gathered back in 2000 in a book called The Quotable Soldier. Theres nothing wrong with The Quotable Soldier. If you have a copy, it wont spoil with age like milk or meat.

In my view, however, my unflagging interest in war- fighters has led me to an expanding horizon of quotes I find irresistible. I have latched on to some because military activities since 2000 (especially since 9/11) demand an updating. Others are included because, frankly, I like them so much I wish I had included them in the original Quotable Soldier. The Quotable Warriors beginnings can be traced to the morning of September 11, 2001, at 8:45. My daily commute to my office in New York was almost over. Out of Penn Station, I turned the corner down 36th Street and Broadway, heading for my work on 23rd Street.

Alongside Speedys Deli, directly under the Empire State Building, the sudden shriek of jet engines directly overhead exploded through my senses. As an aviation buff and enthusiast, I looked up and saw the gone- in- an- instant vision of the dark- gray bottom of a twin- engine jet. It was so low it had barely missed the Empire State Building. What I thought was a 737 (it actually was a 767) disappeared over the buildings alongside Broadway. I could no longer see or hear it. introduction I was disturbed, shocked even.

I knew airplanes under 10,000 feet were required to stay under 250 knots. The plane I saw wasnt under 250 knots, that was for sure. And what was it doing so low? I could not imagine the answers to the questions that raged inside me as I hurried on down Broadway, past people who seemed unaware or uncaring about the apparition that had just passed overhead. Hurrying, I neared my office opposite Madison Park where Broadway meets Fifth Avenue and saw people standing on the sidewalk by the park, pointing downtown. The buildings on my side of the street blocked my view of whatever was making them so excited. I broke into a trot, dodg-ing traffic across the intersection.

Suddenly I was part of the crowd, immersed in their cries of amazement, and staring at the incredible sight far downtown, straight down Broadway: a gaping hole in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, with wisps of smoke floating from the wounded face of the building. One shout was being repeated by an array of voices: That plane that just flew over... it dove into the World Trade Center! I think you know the rest of the story. I think you probably saw it all in the next few hours. I suppose I knew right then that my book of military quotations, The Quotable Soldier, was going to need updating someday. The copy of The Quotable Warrior youre holding right now is very much a new book, with quotes from warriors like Chris Kyle, the American Sniper, taking us deep into the kill zones in the battles our troops faced in Iraq.

Quotes from the previous book, The Quotable Soldier, are here also, worthy of being repeated. viii introduction I began The Quotable Soldier with the text that follows here. I think it still accomplishes its mission of tel ing you about this book. Every man thinks meanly of himself for not hav ing been a soldier. Samuel Johnson, 1778 He knew a thing or two, that Samuel Johnson. He could fling barbs as well as any man, and this particular one was hurled dead- on at his biographer, James Boswel .

According to the noted military historian John Keegan, Johnson knew that Boswell as a young man in Britain had secretly longed to serve in the Foot Guards and wear an officers scarlet coat. The wise- cracking Johnson himself had no such ambi-tions, but he understood Boswel s harmless fantasy, and he knew that many men who had never felt the sting of battle or known a single moment of the drudgery of service life harbored deep regrets: No matter how full or successful their lives had been, they missed never having been part of something important and unforgettablepart of a long line of men who had marched through the pages of history and, one way or another, did whatever they could to serve their comrades and their country. Not everyone, of course, is so sentimental about military service. On the contrary, there are those who loathe the subject, even though they have been in uniform. Some loathe it because they have been in uniform. And then there are the sanctimonious, professional peacemakers babbling to everyone what a terrible mistake war is (as if they have discovered a unique and illuminating vision), meanwhile ix introduction bunkering themselves deep into comfortable and safe positions while letting others tend to the fighting.

I suspect things have always been that way, although in todays atmosphere of instant information peppered with hype and salted with spin- doctoring, integrity and commit-ments to anything sometimes seem as fragile as peace itself. Some veterans of bitter combat never speak of their experiencesever!and their Purple Hearts and other medals are tucked deep in their dresser drawers. Others proudly doff their VFW caps to march in parades, and still others pin medals and service patches on old jungle camo shirts when they visit that long dark wall beside the Potomac River where they can reach out and touch the name of someone very special who never made it home. The horrors of war and combat are so obvious that our fascination with the subject must be questioned: Why? Why the books, the monuments, the parades, the films, the TV documentaries, the speeches, the endless running arguments in the op- ed pages? Wouldnt you think that the anguish and sheer heartbreak of the wars of the twentieth century alone would have resulted in a condition of silent numbness? The answer lies, I believe, in the fact that we do not want to forget. As the distinguished novelist Herman Wouk reminds us, The beginning of the end of War lies in Remembrance. Whether we are veterans with distinguished records of service, or amateur military history buffs who have never even pulled KP or slogged through boot camp (like myself), it seems important to remember the voices and deeds of soldiers, marines, sailors, and airmen of the past.