My definition, a definition in the drill books from the time that General Von Steuben wrote the regulations for General George Washington, the definition of the object of military training is success in battle... It wouldn't be any sense to have a military organization on the backs of the American taxpayers with any other definition.

Paperwork will ruin any military force.

I've always believed that no officer's life, regardless of rank, is of such great value to his country that he should seek safety in the rear... Officers should be forward with their men at the point of impact.

In the Confederate Army, an officer was judged by stark courage alone, and this made it possible for the Confederacy to live four years.

Expecting to be wrong about most things most of the time brings, finally, the kind of humility that leads to peace. I think.

There's a tradition of public service in my family. I'm one of three boys that joined the military. My father was in the Peace Corps.

I was drafted when I was 17, and I spent two years, and I lost a friend in war.

I don't really think much about how I would have fared in the Second World War. It's a topic that has to be treated with respect and subtlety, and you can't just go in all guns blazing and make an epic action film.