“I’d rather go down the river with seven studs than with a hundred shitheads”

– Colonel Charlie Beckwith

“We ain’t making no goddamn cornflakes here.”

-Col. Charlie Beckwith, founder of Delta Force

“Tanks are easily identified, easily engaged, much-feared targets which attract all the fire on the battlefield. When all is said and done, a tank is a small steel box crammed with inflammable or explosive substances which is easily converted into a mobile crematorium for its highly skilled crew.”

– Brigadier Shelford Bidwell

“War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography.”

– Ambrose Bierce

“I do not like this word “bomb.” It is not a bomb. It is a device that is exploding.”

French ambassador to New Zealand Jacques le Blanc, regarding press coverage of France’s nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific

“Give a man fire, and he’ll be warm for a day, light a man on fire, and he’ll be warm the rest of his life”

-Staff Sgt. Timothy A. Breen

“Gentlemen, we are being killed on the beaches. Lets go inland and be killed.”

– General Norman Cota: Omaha Beach, 1944

“We are outnumbered, there is only one thing to do. We must attack!”

– Admiral Andrew Cunningham, 11 November 1940. Before attacking the Italian fleet at Taranto

“Army: A body of men assembled to rectify the mistakes of the diplomats.”

– Josephus Daniels

“Onward we stagger, and if the tanks come, may God help the tanks.”

– Col. William O. Darby, U.S. Rangers

“When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she’s dating a pussy.”

– Attributed to General Tommy Franks

“War is hell, but actual combat is a motherfucker.”

– Colonel Dave Hackworth’s response to a reporter’s attempt to interview him about a battle

“I never trust a fighting man who doesn’t smoke or drink.”

– Admiral William Halsey

“I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version.”

Colonel Oliver North, from his Iran-Contra testimony

“Paper-work will ruin any military force”

– Lieutenant-General Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller

“Just drive down that road, until you get blown up”

– General George Patton, about reconnaissance troops

“We should declare war on North Vietnam. . . .We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas.”

– Ronald Reagan, 1965

“When I joined the military it was illegal to be homosexual, then it became optional, and now it’s legal. I’m getting out before Obama makes it mandatory.

– Gy. Sgt. Harry Berres, USMC