Military Experience Quotes

I was trained in Army Intelligence, but spent most of my army career in the infantry. But like many people of my generation, I was very much caught up in the Cold War, and books and movies about espionage.

In the re-creation of combat situations, and this is coming from a director who's never been in one, being mindful of what these veterans have actually gone through, you find that the biggest concern is that you don't look at war as a geopolitical endeavor.

European nations began World War I with a glamorous vision of war, only to be psychologically shattered by the realities of the trenches. The experience changed the way people referred to the glamour of battle; they treated it no longer as a positive quality but as a dangerous illusion.

Certainly, when I'd left Iraq back in 2008, I'd been proud of my service, but whether we'd been successful or not was still an open question.

To expect ... the same service from raw and undisciplined recruits, as from veteran soldiers, is to expect what never did and perhaps never will happen. Men, who are familiarized to danger, meet it without shrinking; whereas troops unused to service often apprehend danger where no danger is.

Leading the coalition military effort during the surge in Iraq in 2007 and 2008 was the most important endeavor - and greatest challenge - of my 37 years in uniform.

I've never really had a TV career. I've been a soldier and a climber.

Say what you will, nothing can make a complete soldier except battle experience.

We don’t need corporate generals. We need warrior generals…. Many of our military leaders are like car designers who have never driven a car….they go along to get along.

’Tis time we should get rid of an error which the experience of all mankind has exploded, and which our own experience had dearly taught us to reject. We have frequently heard the behavior of the Militia extolled ... by visionary Men whose credulity easily swallowed every vague story in support of a favorite Hypothesis. America has been almost amused out of her liberties. I solemnly declare I never was witness to a single instance that can countenance an opinion of Militia or raw troops being fit for the real business of fighting.

His military experiences have been confined to shooting a fleeing Spaniard in the back on the slopes of Kettle Hill in Cuba.... No other conspicuous American public man would behave with such squalid selfishness.

We need to have a commander-in-chief who knows what she is doing.

Drafted soldiers are far more likely to die in combat than long-service professionals. Military leaders know from painful experience that it takes years to produce a fully competent combat soldier.

I will say I would leave many of the decisions of some of the things you mentioned to the generals, the admirals, the people on top, and we get some of the - the Congressmen just mentioned to me and I - I think it's true 100 percent, you get your top enlisted people in that and you have some discussions with some of these top enlisted people who know it better than probably anybody.

A President who has served in the military is better able to serve as Commander in Chief …. I was a better President for having served …

As a former Airman First Class in the United States Air Force, like many veterans in America, my military experience played an important part in instilling in me a sense of character and discipline that has served me throughout my life.

I spent four years in the United States Army between 1985 and 1989, and I certainly learned how to survive out in the woods.

A commander in chief with military experience might be able to prod a conservative military into thinking more imaginatively.

In camp was found a book, the first of the kind I had ever seen, in which I was made a great hero, slaying Indians by the hundreds.

I was in the army, and to me it was like a newsreel.

Abraham Lincoln went through 12 generals before he got Ulysses S. Grant. He had never done a Civil War before.

What we look for are people that are technically competent. You need a background in a scientific field, whether it's as a scientist, an engineer, medical doctor, or, you know, a person that's in the military with some kind of technical background.

If I come in, and you're an employer, and I say, 'Well, I was a sniper in the Marine Corps. Do you have any sniper positions open?' 'No.' But if I told you that I was good at communication, good at leadership under stressful environments, team management, personnel management, leadership, being prompt, are stuff that I can bring to the table.

I've got cabinet experience, military experience, and private sector experience.

One of the things I learned in the military is sometimes you don't know what mistakes you make for a long time. But as you go through a campaign, there's lots of decision points you make, and you don't know whether those are gonna be the right decision points or not.