In Austria after VE Day) Sergeant Mercier...dressed in a full German officer's uniform, topped off with a monocle for his right eye. Someone got the bright idea to march him over to the company order...
The first man stepped up to the open door. All the men had been ordered to look out at the horizon, not straight down, for obvious psychological reasons.
The result of these shared experiences was a closeness unknown to all outsiders. Comrades are closer than friends, closer than brothers. Their relationship is different from that of lovers. Their trus...
We know how to win wars. We must learn now to win peace...
Chickenshit is so called - instead of horse- or bull- or elephant shit - because it is small-minded and ignoble and takes the trivial seriously.
Routine wears down vigilance.
Hitler made only one big mistake when he built his Atlantic Wall, the paratroopers liked to say. He forgot to put a roof on it.
Within Easy Company they had made the best friends they had ever had, or would ever have. They were prepared to die for each other; more important, they were prepared to kill for each other.
We can't make you do anything, but we can make you wish you had. - Army saying
There was no room on this new road for Crazy Horse, the greatest warrior of them all. Perhaps Touch-the-Clouds had this in mind as he looked down on those courageous, confused people. It s well, he sa...
What the Shoshones valued above all else, and depended on absolutely, was the bravery of their young men. Their childrearing system was designed to produce brave warriors. They seldom correct their ch...
Plan your work and work your planwhere there is a will, there is a way
So it had always been and apparently would be. The terms peace and war as understood by the Americans had no meaning to the Indians. Hostilities could break out at any time, for no apparent cause othe...
How he led is no mystery. His techniques were time-honored. He knew his men. He saw to it that they had dry socks, enough food, sufficient clothing. He pushed them to but never beyond the breaking poi...
So intense was the partisanship of the day, so much did the Federalists hate and fear Jefferson, that they were ready to turn the country over to Aaron Burr. Had they succeeded and made Burr the presi...
I instinctively dislike ever to uphold the conservative as opposed to the bold
There are many rules of good writing, but the best way to find them is to be a good reader.
In one of his last newsletters, Mike Ranney wrote: In thinking back on the days of Easy Company, I'm treasuring my remark to a grandson who asked, 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?'No,' I answered...
At the hangars, each jumpmaster was given two packs of papers, containing an order of the day from Eisenhower and a message from Colonel Sink, to pass around to the men. Tonight is the night of nights...
All this was part of the initiation rites common to all armies. So was learning to drink. Beer, almost exclusively, at the post PX, there being no nearby towns. Lots of beer. They sang soldiers’ songs...