David Finkel > Quotes

“And a hero isn’t someone who doesn’t feel fear, they’re someone who in spite of their fear does the right thing and really risks their own safety,”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“But you can gift wrap a piece of shit and it’s still a piece of shit.”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“He is a true casualty of battle. There's not a physical scar, but look at the man's heart, and his head, and there are scars galore.”
― David Finkel, The Good Soldiers

“It's a thin line between what we're calling acceptable and not acceptable. As a leader, you're supposed to know when not to cross it. But how do you know? Does the army teach us how to control our emotions? Does the army teach us how to deal with a friend bleeding out in front of you? No.”
― David Finkel, The Good Soldiers

“I can see the little girl, the face of the little girl. And as much as people say that they don't care about these people and all that, I don't care about these people - but I do, at the same time, if that makes any sense. They don't want to help themselves, they're blowing us up, yeah, that hurts, but it also hurts to know that I've seen a girl that's as old as my little brother watch me shoot somebody in the head. And I don't care if she's Iraqi, Korean, African, white - she's still a little girl. And she watched me shoot somebody.”
― David Finkel, The Good Soldiers

“To be a soldier in combat was to fall in love constantly,”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“The greatest regret of my military career was as Commanding General of the 1st Cavalry Division in Iraq in 2004-2005, he later wrote of the decision he made. I lost 169 soldiers during that year-long deployment. However, the monument we erected at Fort Hood, Texas, in memoriam lists 168 names. I approved the request of others not to include the name of the one soldier who committed suicide. I deeply regret my decision.”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“The thought that the bullet has already been fired at each of us and it is only a matter of time when it will hit, brings comfort to some and terror to others.”
― David Finkel, The Good Soldiers

“Could it have nothing to do with the soldier and everything to do with the type of war now being fought?”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“I was a normal guy who got sent to Iraq and became crazy, so they sent me back to America to become sane, and now it’s America that’s driving me crazy.”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“It seems like it might go on for a while, so Tausolo takes a seat and looks around the sergeant's cubicle. There's not much to see, since the guy just arrived at the WTB, only a blank form tacked to a wall that looks like every other army form in the world.

"Hurt Feelings Report," it is titled. "Whiner's name," it says under that. "Which ear were the words of hurtfulness spoken into?" it says under that. "Is there permanent feeling damage?" "Did you require a 'tissue' for tears?" "Has this resulted in a traumatic brain injury?"

"Reason for filing this report," it says under that. "Mark all that apply." "I am a wimp." "I am a crybaby." "I want my mommy." "I was told that I am not a hero." "Narrative," it says under that. "Tell us in your own sissy words how your feelings were hurt." Finally at the bottom of the form:

We, as the Army, take hurt feelings seriously. If you don't have someone who can give you a hug and make things all better, please let us know and we will promptly dispatch a "hugger" to you ASAP. In the event we are unable to find a "hugger" we will notify the fire department and request that they send fire personnel to your location. If you are in need of supplemental support, upon written request, we will make every reasonable effort to provide you with a "blankey," a "binky" and/or a bottle if you so desire.”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“Congratulations for conquering PTSD. And now you're fucked.”
― David Finkel

“The lessons learned, then, in Robinson's case: "Additional training is required to inform soldiers of the dangers of self-medicating along with the associated risk of overdosing" is the first. "Encourage the use of a battle buddy among warriors" is the second. "Increase suicide prevention classes" is the third. "Increase communication to twice a day with high-risk soldiers" is the fourth. "Continue improvements in leader communication" is the fifth. And that's that. Eight months. Five minutes. The army moves on to the next suicide. Case forever closed.”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“To hear them laugh was to hear that everything was all right, but to see them laugh was to see otherwise”
― David Finkel, The Good Soldiers

“Everywhere on this day, the after-war continues, as eternally as war itself,”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“We got some stupid fuckers,” Kauzlarich said after the inflatable doll had been tossed into a burn barrel and set on fire, which created a thick column of oily black smoke that rose over the center of the FOB. “We got what we got,” Cummings said—and what he and Kauzlarich were wondering was whether these first cracks were just the effects of war, or also the effects of an army forced to take more and more stupid fuckers. It was something they had been dealing with since they began forming the battalion. For several years, in order to meet recruiting goals, the army had been accepting an ever-increasing number of recruits who needed some kind of waiver in order to become soldiers. Without the waivers, those recruits would not have been allowed into the army. Some of the waivers were for medical problems and others were for low scores on aptitude tests, but the greatest percentage were for criminal offenses ranging from misdemeanor drug use to felonies such as burglary, theft, aggravated assault, and even a few cases of involuntary manslaughter. In 2006, the year the 2-16 was getting most of its soldiers, 15 percent of the army’s recruits were given criminal waivers. Most were for misdemeanors, but nearly a thousand were for some type of felony conviction, which was more than double the number granted just three years before. This”
― David Finkel, The Good Soldiers

“It wasn't as if they had a choice. They were soldiers whose choices had ended when they had signed contracts and taken their oaths. Whether they had joined for reasons of patriotism, of romantic notions, to escape a broken home of some sort, or out of economic need, their job now was to follow the orders of other soldiers who were following orders, too. Somewhere, far from Iraq, was where the orders began, but by the time they reached Rustamiyah, the only choice left for a solider was to choose which lucky charm to tuck behind his body armor, or which foot to line up in front of the other, as he went out to follow the order of the day.”
― David Finkel, The Good Soldiers

“I start thinking about what happened and then I start thinking about why I'm still here. It's pointless. They say on TV that the soldiers want to be there? I can't speak for every soldier, but I think if people went around and made a list of names of who fucking thinks we should actually be here and who wants to be here, ain't nobody that wants to be here, because there's no point. What are we getting out of fucking being here? Nothing.”
― David Finkel, The Good Soldiers

“In the Value Economy, you succeed by creating value for your company. You need time to create value, but a very different kind of time. You need blocks of your best, uninterrupted time to strategically focus on those things that you do for your company that create the most value. Low-value email and third-party requests? You’ll get to them, but only after you’ve invested the best hours of your week into your highest-value creation activities. The low-value stuff gets your remnant time, not your best time.”
― David Finkel

“He has an aide, paid for by the VA, who helps him with his leg brace, his arm brace, his hand brace, his clothing, his shoes that she double-knots, his medications, and his food. Sometimes, when she takes him to lunch in the nearby town, he asks her to dress him in a T-shirt that says “What Have You Done for Your Country?” on the front and “I Took a Bullet in the Head for Mine” on the back, so people who stare at him won't think they're looking at the results of some drunk in a car wreck.”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“impotency; many developed”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“He knew America, and even though he hadn't been there in fifteen years, he knew what its soldiers liked because of what one of them had written on the door of a metal locker that was in the room he'd been given to live in. "Sex, potato soup, and Johnny Cash," it said.”
― David Finkel, The Good Soldiers

“Let’s talk about habituation,”
― David Finkel, Thank You for Your Service

“Entropy is only ever tamed by the counteracting investment of active energy to bring some order and structure to your week.”
― David Finkel