Ray McPadden > Quotes

“The hard, right thing is best. Good infantrymen should not sit still. I examine the risk and decide to stay put, on account of energy. It dominates infantry operations. Marching, digging, shivering, and bounding all take energy. Energy is precious, and I am tired.”
― Ray McPadden, We March at Midnight: A War Memoir

“No one does push-ups, weights, or jujitsu. Calories are stored for fighting.”
― Ray McPadden, We March at Midnight: A War Memoir

“Balancing sustenance and firepower makes for hard choices. It is better to lick dew off the grass than to yell, “Bang,” at the enemy.”
― Ray McPadden, We March at Midnight: A War Memoir

“When under extreme stress, it is normal to crave physical contact, and after all, there are deep bonds between us.”
― Ray McPadden, We March at Midnight: A War Memoir

“Energy and optimism are crucial, I remind myself.”
― Ray McPadden, We March at Midnight: A War Memoir

“Patrol after patrol, I learn to stop staring at decisions. Be cool and make a call. The worst thing is being indecisive.”
― Ray McPadden, We March at Midnight: A War Memoir

“What makes this all so hard is that anything can happen at any moment.”
― Ray McPadden, We March at Midnight: A War Memoir

“All these decisions must be framed with a combat lens. Any of these decisions can get us killed.”
― Ray McPadden, We March at Midnight: A War Memoir

“And that gets me thinking we can be many things in a single fight, brave and cowardly and bold and bumbling, especially if the shooting drags on for a bit. And if you like a guy, you remember the good he did in a fight, and if you don’t like him, you remember the bad, and none of it is fair and that’s beyond me.”
― Ray McPadden, We March at Midnight: A War Memoir