Quotes about and by Marines and our Corps
In honor of today, I have posted the following quotes concerning the United States Marine Corps:
"For the honor of the fallen, for the glory of the dead", Edgar Guest wrote of Belleau Wood
In the Belleau Wood fighting in 1918, the Germans received a thorough indoctrination in the fighting ability of the Marines. Fighting through supposedly impenetrable woods and capturing supposedly untakeable terrain, the persistent attacks, delivered with unbelievable courage soon had the Germans calling Marines "teufelhunden," referring to the fierce fighting dogs of legendary origin.
This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. My rifle, without me, is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I WILL...
My rifle and myself know that what counts in this war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, nor the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. WE WILL HIT...
My rifle is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its sights and its barrel. I will ever guard it against the ravages of weather and damage as I will ever guard my legs, my arms, my eyes and my heart against damage. I will keep my rifle clean and ready. We will become part of each other. WE WILL...
Before God, I swear this creed. My rifle and myself are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. WE ARE THE SAVIORS OF MY LIFE....
So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy, but peace! -Marine rifle creed
"The deadliest weapon in the world is a MARINE and his rifle!" -GEN. PERSHING, US.ARMY
"Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking!" -FERDINAND FOCH
"We're surrounded. That simplifies the problem!" -CHESTY PULLER, USMC
"The more MARINES I have around the better I like it!" -GEN. MARK CLARK, US.ARMY
"Sometimes it is entirely appropriate to kill a fly with a sledge-hammer!" -MAJ. HOLDREDGE
"A ship without MARINES is like a garment without buttons." -ADM. DAVID PORTER, USN
"The MARINES have landed and have the situation well in hand!" -RICHARD HARDING DAVIS
"Casualties many; Percentage of dead not known; Combat efficiency: we are winning!" -COL. DAVID M. SHOUP, USMC
"I can never again see a UNITED STATES MARINE without experiencing a feeling of reverence." -GEN. JOHNSON, US.ARMY
"The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a MARINE CORPS for the next 500 years." -JAMES FORRESTAL, SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
"Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?" -GySgt. DANIEL DALY, USMC
"We're not retreating, Hell! We're just attacking in a different direction!" -GEN. OLIVER SMITH, USMC
"I have just returned from visiting the MARINES at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world!" -GEN. DOUGLAS MACARTHUR, US.ARMY
"Teufelhunden! (Devil Dogs)" -GERMAN SOLDIERS, WW1 at BELLEAU WOOD
"So they've got us surrounded?.. good! Now we can fire in any direction; those bastards won't get away this time!" -CHESTY PULLER, USMC
"We have two companies of MARINES running all over this island and thousands of ARMY troops doing nothing!" -GEN. JOHN VESSEY, CHAIRMAN OF JOINT CHIEFS
"Retreat hell! We just got here!" -CAPT. LLOYD WILLIAMS, USMC
"The safest place in Korea was right behind a platoon of MARINES. LORD, how they could fight!" -MAJ. GEN. FRANK LOWE, US.ARMY
"Panic sweeps my men when they are facing the AMERICAN MARINES." -CAPTURED NORTH KOREAN MAJOR
"Our Country won't go on forever, if we stay soft as we are now. There won't be any AMERICA because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race!" -LT. GEN. LEWIS "CHESTY" PULLER, USMC
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." -PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN, 1985
"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, of 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
"When the new recruit is standing in front of his D.I., he knows what he had to do, what his D.I. wants him to do, his Mama, his Daddy, his leader says to do. But what our whole recruit training program is heading towards is that Marine doing what he has been trained for when his leader, or any other "senior" is not there looking over him. Those moments when he is alone in combat, and he has to rely on one person, himself!"
-Chesty Puller's Rules of Success
"When in doubt, empty the magazine."
---???
"To ERR is human, to FORGIVE divine. HOWEVER, neither is Marine Corps Policy."
--???
"Marines never die! They just go to hell and regroup."
--???
"It seemed from the conversation that this fellow, despite his appearance, had flunked his physical examination and the officer was giving him the bad news. The blonde guy pleaded for an exception that would allow him to become a Marine. The captain listened quietly, staring straight ahead, thought for a moment, then said, "An exception could be made only if you have some special skills or training that the Corps needs. In that case, we might consider a waiver in order to take advantage of those skills." "Tell me, young man, what is your profession?" "Teach history, Sir." The captain stared into the blonde man's eyes, spoke slowly and deliverately. "Son, we don't teach history, we make it!"
--Stories From the Pacific
"Marines about to go into battle. Some were standing watch, some readied equipment, some slept or rested, but all were quiet. No nervous jabbering, no false bravado, no whining, no melodramatics... they were professionals."
--2nd Lieutenant "Vic" Taylor, on "the Magnificent Bastards"
"Being ready is not what matters. What matters is winning after you get there."
--Lieutenant General V.H. Krulak, USMC: To a Marine unit leaving for Vietnam, April 1965
"Private First Class Melvin E. Newlin was manning a key machine gun post with four other Marines in July 1967 when a savage enemy attack nearly overran their position. Critically wounded, his comrades killed, Private Newlin propped himself against his machine gun and twice repelled the enemy attempts to overrun his position. During a third assault, he was knocked unconscious by a grenade, and the enemy, believing him dead, bypassed him and continued their attack on the main force. When he regained consciousness, he crawled back to his weapon and brought it to bear on the enemy rear, inflicting heavy casualties and causing the enemy to stop their assault on the main positions and again attack his machine gun post. Repelling two more enemy assaults, Private Newlin was awarded the Medal of Honor for his courageous refusal to surrender his position or to cease fighting because of his wounds."
--Guidebook for Marines
"They (The Marine Corps) have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's."
- President Harry S. Truman in a letter, September, 1950.
In the face of the resulting public turmoil, the President apologized five days later.
"I am convinced that there is no smarter, handier, or more adaptable body of troops in the world."
- Prime Minister of Britain Winston Churchhill
"No one should pass an American in uniform without saying “Thank you, we are grateful.” Always mindful that they are prepared to risk all their dreams so that all of us can reach ours.”
- Secretary of Defense, William Cohen
at the Memorial Ceremony for the service members that died aboard the USS Cole.
"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
You earned the title "Marine" upon graduation from recruit training. It wasn't willed to you; it isn't a gift. It is not a government subsidy. Few can claim the title; no one may take it away. It is yours forever
- Tom Bartlett - Leatherneck Magazine
"The Marines fought almost solely on esprit decorps, I was certain. It was inconceivable to most Marines that they should let another Marine down, or that they could be responsible for dimming the bright reputation of their Corps. The Marines simply assumed that they were the world's best fighting men."
- Robert Sherrod, 1943, regarding the battle at Tarawa
"Visit the Navy-Yard, and behold a Marine... a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments."
- Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience, 1848
"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, Baseball Hall of Famer
The man who will go where his colors will go, without asking, who will fight a phantom foe in a jungle and mountain range, without counting, and who will suffer and die in the midst of incredible hardship, without complaint, is still what he has always been, from Imperial Rome to sceptered Britain to Democratic America. He is the stuff of which legends are made. His pride is his colors and his regiment, his training hard and thorough and coldly realistic, to fit him for what he must face, and his obedience is to his orders. As a legionary, he held the gates of civilization for the classical world...he has been called United States Marine.
-Lieutenant Colonel T.R. Fehrenbach, US Army in "This Kind of War"
"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 out of 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
"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."
- 1stLt Clifton B. Cates, USMC, 96th Co., Soissons, 19 July 1918
"Every Marine is, first and foremost, a rifleman. All other conditions are secondary."
- General A.M. Gray, Commandant USMC
"For the Marine Corps there is no peace."
- Sergeant Edwin N. Demby, USMC; later Secretary of the Navy
"The bended knee is not a tradition of our Corps."
- General Alexander A. Vandergrift, USMC, to the Senate Naval Affairs Committee, 5 May 1946
"Retreat, hell! We just got here."
- Capt Lloyd Williams at the Battle of Belleau Wood
When an Army captain asked him for the direction of the line of retreat, Col Puller called his artillerymen, gave them the Army position, and ordered: "If they start to pull back from that line, even one foot, I want you to open fire on them." Turning to the captain, he replied "Does that answer your question? We're here to fight." At Koto-ri in Korea
- Chesty Puller at Koto-ri in Korea
"Don't forget that you're First Marines! Not all the Communists in hell can overrun you!"
- Chesty Puller motivating his men at Chosin Reservoir
Old breed? New breed? There's not a damn bit of difference so long as it's the Marine breed.
- Chesty Puller, USMC
"It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and who's coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag"
Father Dennis Edward O'Brien/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
"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
"We signed up knowing the risk. Those innocent people in New York didn't go to work thinking there was any kind of risk."
Pvt. Mike Armendariz-Clark, USMC; Afghanastan, 20 September 2001
"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
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; 10 November 1995
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
Courage is endurance for one moment more…
Unknown Marine Second Lieutenant in Vietnam
"Victory was never in doubt. Its cost was...What was in doubt, in all our minds, was whether there would be any of us left to dedicate our cemetery at the end, or whether the last Marine would die knocking out the last Japanese gun and gunner" -- Major General Graves B. Erskin in Reference To The Battle Of Iwo Jima
a young Marine was being interviewed, and he was asked: "What is the Marine Corps' mission in Iraq?"
He replied: "It is to beat the Army to Baghdad, sir."
"When you guys get home and face an antiwar protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at
his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pussy."
-Commanding General 1st Marine Division