Jim Proser > Quotes

“Letters found on the Japanese dead in the crater described us as monsters. “The Americans on this island are not ordinary troops, but Marines, a special force recruited from jails and insane asylums for bloodlust.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“That was our first real look, up close, at the war. Seeing blood and wounds like that hit hard and put pictures in our heads of what combat was really going to be like. You think you can perform when it counts but then you see wounds like that, for a second, you’re not so sure. You start to wonder what you’ve really got inside.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“What is the present state of my understanding? For here lies all indeed. As for all other things, they are outside the compass of my own will; and if outside the compass of my will, then they are as dead things to me, and as it were, mere smoke.”
― Jim Proser, No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy: The Life of General James Mattis

“There are many qualities in a man, but one that is absolutely necessary in an infantry leader is stark courage.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“Sgt. Basilone in his personal humility and unwavering dedication to the men who served with him, became a true hero of the American people during World War II.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“Right off I got to like the idea that Marines weren’t big on griping about every little thing like some Joes in the Army who made complaining a second career. The bugs and the heat weren’t something to waste your breath on. Marines were big on overcoming things and this way of thinking clicked in my mind.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“he adopts the radio call sign Chaos, which will stay with him for the rest of his career. With typical humor, he claims the call sign is an abbreviation for “commander has an outstanding suggestion.”16”
― Jim Proser, No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy: The Life of General James Mattis

“the CO came in. I made a move. “At ease,” he said. “Basilone, you are a bastard breaker of hearts and killer of men. Am I right?”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“They weren’t even men anymore. They were dumb animals who wanted me dead and had killed all my friends.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“I was a specialist machine gunner so I had the privilege of humping a Browning water cooled over ten miles of jungle trails and back when it came time for duty. The only good thing about it was that my arms and shoulders got to be as hard as the steel I carried. I could crack a walnut in the crook of my arm. And my legs were used to carrying the extra seventy pounds up hill and down. I could run all day long.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“Everybody hit the deck except for Chesty. It took him a few seconds to figure out nobody was shooting but us. He calmly walked down the line, talking to us while he looked for the targets we were imagining, until he was sure we had jumped the gun. He called off the firing and then personally pulled a few of us out of the bushes. I had never seen a man so fearless in all my life.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“They sucked it up and believed they were ready. They weren’t. What can I tell you about these young guys standing out on the cold deck with me? I loved them as much as my own brothers.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“Death is lighter than a feather but duty is weightier than a mountain.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC

“Anybody who has a feel for automatic weapons knows what I mean. You don’t want to be on the wrong side of a poontang-crazed eighteen-year-old with a machine gun, that much I know for sure.”
― Jim Proser, I'm Staying with My Boys: The Heroic Life of Sgt. John Basilone, USMC