Quotes From A Old Soldiers

[Mephisto]

I just finished re-reading Dalton Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun for the third time and became re-interested in quotes from soldiers in combat zones. It's truly seems that there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to war and how militarymen and women suffer. The quote that sent me on this tirade is:

"Now I lay me down to sleep, my bomb-proof cellar's good and deep, but if I'm killed before I wake, remember God it's for your sake. Amen.

My favorite quotes come from my favorite wartime book, Dispatches by Michael Herr

http://history.enotes.com/vietnam-war-biographies/herr-michael

"I think that Vietnam was what we had instead of happy childhoods".

and his reference to a Marine LRRP,

"God help his opposite numbers unless they had at least half a squad along, he was a good killer, one of our best."

Not many people may know that Michael Herr penned R. Lee Ermey's dialogue for the film Full Metal Jacket. His writing is especially captivating in Dispatches as it concentrates on the lowly grunt rather than on the politics or tactics of the Vietnam war.

I hope those of you who are so inclined will post some favorite wartime quotes and the books you read them in - I'm looking for some new reading material. Especially pertinent (to me anyway, I've read nearly everthing about the Nam) is anything coming out of Iraq (from either this war or Desert Storm), Somilia or the Balkans. Thanks in advance. :)

[RenaissanceBiker]

I like this site. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/cbpintro.htm

[Darth Rotor]

I hope those of you who are so inclined will post some favorite wartime quotes and the books you read them in - I'm looking for some new reading material. Especially pertinent (to me anyway, I've read nearly everthing about the Nam) is anything coming out of Iraq (from either this war or Desert Storm), Somilia or the Balkans. Thanks in advance. :)
When I interviewed Major Fulford about his experiences in Viet Nam, one of the things that stuck with me was this remark, which I used in the paper I was writing. Not sure I'd call that a favorite, but it's 30 years later and I still remember the look on his face when he said it.

"I found two of my Marines dead near that rice paddy, both of them killed in the act of extracting that damned cheap ammunition from those new M-16's we had been issued the week before. I was too mad to weep."

DR

[Mephisto]

I like this site. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/cbpintro.htm

Thanks for the link. I found it immediately engaging and would add that the Dispatches photographer, Sean Flynn was related to Errol Flynn the actor and served as the inspiration for the Dennis Hopper/photog character in Apocalypse Now.

The photo-journalists of the Vietnam-era were definitely a special breed and if the restrictions on journalists were lifted in our current war, I'm sure the credibility gap would widen.

[Mephisto]

When I interviewed Major Fulford about his experiences in Viet Nam, one of the things that stuck with me was this remark, which I used in the paper I was writing. Not sure I'd call that a favorite, but it's 30 years later and I still remember the look on his face when he said it.

"I found two of my Marines dead near that rice paddy, both of them killed in the act of extracting that damned cheap ammunition from those new M-16's we had been issued the week before. I was too mad to weep."

DR

Thanks for the quote, Darth. I always favored the M-14, in spite of the extra weight, anyway. The 5.56 always seemed like such a pissy little round.

However, there's nothing like a 30.06 to really reach out and touch someone. ;)

[Solus]

I'll have to remember not to anger Mephisto...

I liked this poem about Vietnam though:

FIRST KILL

I killed today, a man much smaller then me. I would have never believed how scared I could be. It was as if in slow motion the trigger pull, the bucking gun. I saw in his eyes, all he wanted was to run. The bullets entered, his life blood ran out. One shot or ten I really didn't count. In a way I'm so sorry, but in another I'm not. If it were the other way round, would his stomach be in a knot.

[Solus]

The above is from Vietnam and not from WW1 but I still liked the poem.

This is a famous one though WW1 poem though

Dulce et Decorum Est,

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

[SimonD]

Thanks for the quote, Darth. I always favored the M-14, in spite of the extra weight, anyway. The 5.56 always seemed like such a pissy little round.

However, there's nothing like a 30.06 to really reach out and touch someone. ;)

The problem with M-14 is that it became to inaccurate when set to automatic. While the M-16 has a smaler caliber it can do some big damage to a person, due to the way to tumbles through the body, being a light round, while the 30.06 round tends to pass through the body.

Now if you really want to use the larger caliber weapon that is accurate, when you should have use the SLR like us Aussies used;)

Well that's what I've read from soliders in Vietman.

Have you read 'All quite on the western fornt'?