Marine Quote of the Week

[Thorgrimm-28]

They say that you can tell how good any organization is in what regard their enemies, and allies, hold them. Lets see what folks think about the USMC.

[Thorgrimm-28]

Why in hell can't the Army do it if the Marines can? They are the same kind of men; why can't they be like Marines.

Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing, USA; 12 February 1918

[Thorgrimm-28]

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

[Thorgrimm-28]

We have two companies of Marines running rampant all over the northern half of this island, and three Army regiments pinned down in the southwestern corner, doing nothing. What the hell is going on?

Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., USA, Chairman of the the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the assault on Grenada, 1983

[Thorgrimm-28]

They told (us) to open up the Embassy, 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 Aquilar, in the U.S. Embassy; Mogadishu, Somalia, 1991

[Thorgrimm-28]

I have only two men 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 in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918

[Thorgrimm-28]

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 legions 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... in the modern era he has been called United States Marine.

Lieutenant Colonel T.R. Fehrenbach, US Army in "This Kind of War"

[Thorgrimm-28]

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, worshiping 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