Mark Berent > Quotes

“He hoped and prayed that God had a special place for soldiers of any religion, of any country, of any age, who trusted so much their leaders and their cause.”
― Mark Berent, Steel Tiger

“the distinct impression harassment and fear were stalking the corridors. It would at least be understandable, if not countenanced, were it harassment by sporadic enemy fire or fear of combat; but it was worse than that. The harassment came from long hours trying to make sense of, and respond to, conflicting and unprofessional orders from Washington; the fear came from knowing the results were not right and never would be, and the consequences to both conscience and career were not pleasant to contemplate.”
― Mark Berent, Rolling Thunder

“Vietnamese probed him for anti-white and hence anti-American sentiments. He made it abundantly clear he came from a country that believed in meritocracy. White or black, work your ass off and you will profit.”
― Mark Berent, Phantom Leader

“We're the richest nation in the world and everybody wants what we've got. And the minute we look soft, the would-be aggressors will go wild.”
― Mark Berent, Phantom Leader

“He couldn't comprehend the story of French civilians spitting on their wounded soldiers when they returned from the Indochina War. He thought Lartéguy must have made that up. Such a thing certainly could not happen in America.”
― Mark Berent, Rolling Thunder

“He stood, looking out for a few seconds at the darkness that was Arlington Cemetery. He knew every man sleeping there, and in the hundreds of tended cemeteries and lost graves of American soldiers throughout the world. These men slept knowing before they died they could trust their leaders. He turned to face the Chairman.”
― Mark Berent, Steel Tiger

“If somebody's shooting at me, it's a war. And if it isn't, I'll declare one.”
― Mark Berent, Steel Tiger

“Which is I've had it with those ungrateful bastards. Give your all for your country and what do you get? Some punk kids wearing the American flag on their ass throwing stuff and spitting on you. It used to be if there was a war and you weren't in uniform you got spit on. The hell with `em.”
― Mark Berent, Steel Tiger

“I don't like to take a shit every day. But to stay healthy I have to. Sometimes I'm constipated, sometimes I have diarrhea. But I must shit or I'll die. So it is with the press; messy, undignified, but absolutely essential to a healthy nation. Unfortunately, some of the journalists are like hemorrhoids, they contribute nothing, block progress, and are a great pain in the ass.”
― Mark Berent, Steel Tiger

“Clausewitz says the following in his book On War: 'Kind hearted people might, of course, think there was some ingenious way to disarm or defeat an enemy without too much bloodshed, and might imagine this to be a true goal of the art of war. Pleasant as it sounds, it is a fallacy that must be exposed. War is such a dangerous business that the mistakes which come from kindness are the very worst.”
― Mark Berent, Eagle Station

“Shit, he's been in Rescue off and on since Korea. Got more saves than Billy Graham.”
― Mark Berent, Eagle Station

“Couldn't get that idiot to make a decision if you begged him. Notice how he makes that ehh sound when he has to think? He couldn't lead a pack of Cub Scouts to the rest room.”
― Mark Berent, Storm Flight

“Generals are selected for three stars by being uniquely qualified for a specific three-star position.”
― Mark Berent, Eagle Station

“the best brass bands and popular American and British singers the Philippines could imitate.”
― Mark Berent, Eagle Station

“The old bit about only believing half of what you see and none of what you read no longer applies. The American people believe everything they see on the TV and those that do read, believe all of what's in print. `It has to be true otherwise they wouldn't print it?”
― Mark Berent, Rolling Thunder

“astrological scatological rhyme about the young man from Rangoon who tried to fart his way to the moon. Seems he flopped as a rocket, shit in his pocket, and died in a rectal typhoon.”
― Mark Berent, Steel Tiger

“If we had the right civilian leadership, we would have responsive military leadership. But I ask you, how can you lead somebody when you don't know where you are going?”
― Mark Berent, Steel Tiger

“Vietnam-vet unemployment is a third higher than the national average, they don't get anything close to the benefits the guys from World War Two received, and those who return to college are heckled and spit on by students and teachers as well.”
― Mark Berent, Storm Flight

“Management by fear. It made professional liars out of good men.”
― Mark Berent, Steel Tiger

“He did not understand, he admitted to himself, how these elections worked. They seemed such a waste of effort to attain a dubious outcome. Better to know what is best for the people and give it to them by force, if necessary, until they are re-educated about their duties to the State.”
― Mark Berent, Eagle Station

“life is just a hand job.”
― Mark Berent, Phantom Leader

“Message number 311920 Zulu. In the”
― Mark Berent, Steel Tiger

“very safe pilot. He had never had an accident, had never raised his pulse to an almost unbearable rate because he was pushing an airplane--or himself--to see what he could see. The top pilots did this. They needed to know the envelope of the airplane and of themselves. They needed to know the limits to which they could push themselves and their craft and still be in control. They needed to know the precise point at which they or the airplane would depart from stable and controlled flight. So Rawson was now the CO (commanding officer), albeit”
― Mark Berent, Rolling Thunder

“I would think if you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees, that we would someday become communists." -Jane Fonda speech at Michigan State University to raise money for the Black Panthers, Detroit Free Press, 22 November 1969   "My position on the POW issue has been widely misquoted and taken out of context. What I originally said and have continued to say is that the POW's are lying if they assert it was North Vietnamese policy to torture American prisoners." -Jane Fonda, "Who is Being Brainwashed?" An Indochina Peace Campaign Report Santa Monica: Indochina Peace Campaign 1973   "We have no reason to believe that U.S Air Force officers tell the truth. They are professional killers." -Jane Fonda, Washington Star, April 19, 1973”
― Mark Berent, Storm Flight

“Anyone who values freedom and democracy should fight when they are threatened. Tyranny anywhere in the world must be snuffed out. We in the free world should have learned that in the 1930s, when bullies began to rear their heads in Germany, Italy, and Japan. Tyranny feeds upon itself and spreads like a great cancer. If we do not stop it, then who will?”
― Mark Berent, Storm Flight

“Time comes in every good officer's life when he has to stalk the hallowed halls of the five-sided circus,”
― Mark Berent, Storm Flight

“Happy Fourth of July," he said in a voice thick with disgust. "Let's start another War of Independence. This time Let's separate from Washington.”
― Mark Berent, Steel Tiger

“The enemy was considered to be all communist forces in SEA whether NVA (North Vietnamese Army), VC (The Viet Cong in South Vietnam supported from the North), or the PL (Pathet Lao communists) in Laos.”
― Mark Berent, Rolling Thunder

“The act of killing is not a good thing. God did not put us on this earth to kill each other," he said slowly as he searched for the words. "But sometimes it has to be done.”
― Mark Berent, Phantom Leader

“Peace is at hand? Kissinger sounded like Neville Chamberlain returning from his talk with Hitler, saying, “Peace in our time.” Did he mean peace at all costs, regardless of their ally's fate?”
― Mark Berent, Storm Flight