Naval Forces Quotes

The main American naval forces were shifted to the Pacific region and an American admiral made a strong declaration to the effect that if war were to break out between Japan and the United States, the Japanese navy could be sunk in a matter of weeks.

We have ordered the pilots not to board or bring in any [British] Man of War or transport ship

For good or for ill, air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies, however vital and important, must accept a subordinate rank.

God bless the soldiers and seamen, with all their brave commanders.

Our duty was to try and find the Japanese fleet. We never did find the Japanese fleet and I am awfully glad, because they had attacked us there with six carriers, three battleships, 10 or 15 cruisers, and about 20 destroyers.

I served in the Navy in Europe and know firsthand the importance of our NATO partners.

The soldier then is, no matter in what light we examine his position, a ‘hired assassin’ – his first duty, he is told, is to ‘obey’. To obey whom? His superior officers, who in turn must obey the Government. When the mandate goes forth, ‘Kill’, he must kill and dare not ask the reason why. The government under whose orders he serves may have been elected to power on some question of internal administration … but as soon as it is in power it has the right to launch all the military and naval forces …

The army of the sea shall stand before the city, then shall go away for a passage that shall not be very long, as a great prey of citizens shall be holding the ground. The fleet returns. The great emblem recovered.

Soldier or sailor, the fighting man is but a fiend; and the staff and body-guard of the Devil musters many a baton.

The navy of England may be divided into three sorts, of which the one serveth for the wars, the other for burden, and the third for fishermen which get their living by fishing on the sea. How many of the first order are maintained within the realm it passeth my cunning to express

I served in the Israeli Navy, and it's not an easy thing.

Ye mariners of England! That guard our native seas; Whose flag has braved a thousand years, The battle and the breeze!

The President is to be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States…In this respect his authority would be nominally the same with that of the king of Great Britain, but in substance much inferior to it. It would amount to nothing more than the supreme command and direction of the military and naval forces…while that of the British king extends to the DECLARING of war and to the RAISING and REGULATING of fleets and armies, all [of] which, by the Constitution under consideration, would appertain to the legislature.

Of all the branches of men in the forces there is none which shows more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the submariners.