Patrick Gaebelein

“If you do decide to turn the page after this warning, you do so with the understanding that you’re never going to look at a USMC commercial the same again, because you’ll know how disgusting we really are, and how disgusting we need to be in order to laugh as we maim other human beings and then step on their skulls. Oh, and then come back into society and expect to be “normal.” Yeah, that’s a fuckin’ joke.”
― Donny O'Malley, Embarrassing Confessions of a Marine Lieutenant: Operation Branding Iron 2.1A

“permeated by the almost indescribable smell of the Russian common soldier, which I can still smell today, but do not think I could begin to analyse. It could be a mixture of damp leather, horse shit, but also possibly the smell of the unwashed.”
― Armin Scheiderbauer, Adventures in My Youth: A German Soldier on the Eastern Front 1941–45

“The Army brought me for the first time into a world with an unyielding moral compass; a world in which breaking the law results in the law breaking you right back—swiftly and without discussion. It taught me for the very first time that responsibility is a real thing and that authority matters. And you will respect it.”
― Salvatore A. Giunta, Living with Honor: A Memoir by America's First Living Medal of Honor Recipient Since the Vietnam War

“War is not cool, of course. It is brutal and inhuman and tragic on multiple levels. It’s also sometimes necessary.”
― Salvatore A. Giunta, Living with Honor: A Memoir by America's First Living Medal of Honor Recipient Since the Vietnam War