Unit Cohesion Quotes

Every soldier must know, before he goes into battle, how the little battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture, and how the success of his fighting will influence the battle as a whole.

I remember when I was a private soldier. I remember the days when I was taken care of and when I was not taken care of.

Marines have a cynical approach to war. They believe in three things; liberty, payday and that when two Marines are together in a fight, one is being wasted. Being a minority group militarily, they are proud and sensitive in their dealings with other military organizations. A Marine's concept of a perfect battle is to have other Marines on the right and left flanks, Marine aircraft overhead and Marine artillery and naval gunfire backing them up.

Our profession is built on the bedrock of trust - the trust that must inherently exist among Soldiers, and between Soldiers and their leaders to accomplish their mission in the chaos of war. Recent incidents of sexual assault and sexual harassment demonstrate that we have violated that trust.

Morale is good; troops are confident; leaders are capable.

The goal was for the men to see each other, to give the troops and idea of their own strength, to infuse espirit de corps.

A part of being in the army is you never really leave a man behind.

Why does soldiers leave the protection of his trench hole in the ground and go forward in the face of shot and shell? It is because of the leader who is in front of him and his comrades who are around him. Comradeship makes a man feel warm and courageous when all his instincts tend to make him cold and afraid.

There are no bad regiments, there are only bad officers.

Not for the first time, he wished he commanded a highly trained bunch of soldiers instead of a ragtag mob of rejects in varying stages of alcoholism.

There is no honor in denigrating a fellow marine in any way shape and form.

Why do soldiers fight? They join because they believe in a higher cause -- protecting religion, their nation, defending against a foreign nation. But why do soldier stay and fight? Soldiers aren't individuals. They are part of a unit. And that unit is led by a commander. If they don't trust their commander ... if there is no leadership, there is nothing.

The U.S. Military is no place for social experiments.

Men ... do not fight for flag or country, for the Marine Corps or glory or any other abstraction. They fight for one another.

Morale is the greatest single factor in successful wars.

That's the main thing on defense: focus, patience and staying as one unit.

As a Marine officer in combat, I was responsible for the lives and safety of all the Marines who served with me.

One of the things that makes our military the best in the world is the certain knowledge of each soldier, sailor, airman, and Marine that they can always count on their comrades should they need help - that they will never be abandoned.

We had a master sergeant present us with the Bronze Star of Valor he had gotten because he had felt we were the eighth men of the platoon.

I'm probably more comfortable inside a Marine Corps rifle company than I am anywhere in my life.

In the armies and among every ten men there is one of more life, of more heart, or at least of more authority, who with his courage, with words and by example keeps the others firm and disposed to fight.

Your Marines having been under my command for nearly six months, I feel that I can give you a discriminating report as to their excellent standing with their brothers of the army and their general good conduct.

Just think of the trust that often exists in soldiers. Within their own unit, you could say they have to trust each other. A spirit of camaraderie builds up and, in the end, they will risk their lives for each other. They may even go so far as to dehumanise the other, enemy group - a mechanism you can also observe in chimps.

Good commanders look after their troops, and good troops look after their commanders.

There was always talk of espirit de corps, of being gung ho, and that must have been a part of it. Better, tougher training, more marksmanship on the firing range, the instant obedience to orders seared into men in boot camp.