Ward Carroll > Quotes

“Spud’s chances of getting his own squadron or even attaining the rank of commander were very slim, which gave him an attitudinal peace-of-mind that ironically made him one of the Arrowslingers’ more influential lieutenant commanders.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“Then he looked down on the missile launcher mounted below and wondered how long it had been since it had been fired.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Wing

“Six hours in the sky. Six hours of riding a man-made contraption—and an old one at that, a collection of composite fibers, spinning metal, controlled explosions, electrical currents, and hydraulic fluids.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Fight

“Instead, Rear Admiral Dykstra had approached him after the memorial service and casually announced: “I guess you’re the skipper now. Good luck with it.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Fight

“You see, you all are in the Navy, not the Air Force. We don’t flare our jets and gently touch down on our one-million-foot-long, ten-thousand-foot-wide runways. We start our flights by hooking our jets up to a catapult and throwing all sixty-seven thousand pounds of them into the air in two-point-two seconds, and when we’re done we slam down at a seven-hundred-foot-per-minute rate of descent, catch a wire with our tailhooks while our jets are at full military power and stop within a couple of hundred feet. And, oh, by the way, our runway moves around in the angry sea. And we land at night and in bad weather.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Wing

“In some ways, the label “great officer” was a euphemism for “crappy pilot” the same way “great personality” was code for “ugly chick.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Wing

“Cheers for Reggie.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Fight

“If you can make a living doing what you love, you don’t have much choice.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“Buckhaltser, turn to the news, quick!”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Wing

“For all of our fancy equipment, the SAM that’ll get you is the one you don’t see with your eyes.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“Now a squadron without a skipper and an air wing without a CAG stood before the large portraits in silence.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Fight

“In that case, congratulations. You’ve been promoted to lieutenant commander.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Fight

“When he was selected, he didn’t even realize he was being considered, and before he would accept, he had to be assured he could come back to D.C. the minute his god-awful sea duty was over. He was petitioned by his mentors once again to “check the warrior block,” with the guarantee that once he pinned on rear admiral he could carve his own permanent niche in the Pentagon.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“There’s no getting around that no matter which way your gate swings.” “I think you’ve got the wrong impression, sir,” Punk explained. “We’re not gay; we’re in the Navy.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Wing

“The action across the flight deck, to the untrained eye a chaotic rush of bodies maniacally signaling each other or tending to the airplanes like remoras on sharks, was a miracle of coordination, and regardless of how many times Punk took the time to consider the operation he was always struck by the workingman’s beauty of it.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Fight

“I do know good leaders breed more good leaders, and if the system’s lucky, bad leaders just breed angry junior officers who vow never to be like their bosses once they get in the same positions.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“At the same time, he felt shallow and duped by those who would have him believe he was better than the rest of the world by the sole virtue of his citizenship—those who had him wear his war face just hours ago.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“How much are the greens fees?” “RDl’s got you covered.” “Is that legal?” “We do it all the time.” Not an answer, really, but close enough for Punk’s standards of conduct.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Wing

“Yellow jerseys are the catapult and arresting gear officers—the ‘shooters’—and the taxi directors, enlisted petty officers. The blue shirts are the tractor drivers and the worker bees who chock and chain the jets. The green shirts are the deck apes, the guys who make sure the catapults and arresting wires are working right, a dirty business as you saw from the gunk that’s already on your loafers. The purple shirts fuel the jets. The brown shirts are squadron guys, plane captains mostly.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Wing

“You mean we risked American lives and spent a shitload of tax dollars here protecting their sovereignty not that long ago, and now we can’t even launch from their country?” Sticky asked. “Don’t try to figure it out,” Porky warned. “It’s the Middle East.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“Christ, boy, how cliché. The thing Punk feared as much as a dual-engine flameout right after takeoff was becoming one of them, the twerps who showed up at the front door of flight school with a blank slate of a personality and slowly allowed the business of naval aviation to define every facet of their existence—guys who constantly used expressions like “the wife must’ve rolled in hot on you over that one” and “check six.” He chided himself for his entry into the arena of the dorks. Who did fighter pilots impress? Boy Scouts and other fighter pilots.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“Yeah, but in many ways Dad’s job was easier than mine.” “How’s that?” “Well, the Soviet Union loomed large for the duration of his tenure, and the Department of Defense had deep pockets.” He stared blankly at his seven iron while working his thumbnail along the grooves in the face of it. “RDI operates on pretty tight margins these days. One contract can make or break the company. Even a rumor could kill us.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Wing

“Punk’s eyes followed the admiral back to his seat, and he considered what the old man had been like in his days as a lieutenant. It seemed unlikely that he’d ever been simply one of the boys trying to light his farts in the eight-man stateroom. Then Punk tried to picture any one of the squadron lieutenants who surrounded him as an admiral twenty-five years down the line, but no images would form.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Fight

“The speakerphone cracked with the three-star’s voice from Bahrain: “I guess I’m trying to figure out if we’re now at war with Iran.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“Soup may not have been entirely rational, but he wasn’t temporarily insane either.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Fight

“What the secretary of defense forgot with his concept of rightsizing is that, when you do the same with less, those left in the military wind up doing more.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“That’s why you’re bald. Your hair got bored with hanging out with you.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's War

“This truckload of refugees was targeted while trying to flee the violence that continues to descend on the area surrounding Kandahar.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Fight

“An airplane just crashed into a building in New York.” He pushed a button on the front of the television set a few times and then moved behind the counter with Seaman Buckhaltser to watch.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Wing

“Heroes are just people with good timing; goats like me are people with exceptionally shitty timing. Life comes down to being in the right or wrong place at the right or wrong time.”
― Ward Carroll, Punk's Wing