15 quotes
Reflections on an Unexpected Meal Experience
Private Zab
Those Sicilian women cooked us a terrific meal. It's too bad they were all over fifty. We were more horny than we were hungry.
[narrating]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Humor in the Face of Conflict
The Sergeant
I can understand you being horny and all, Fritz... but you have bad breath.
[choking the German male nurse who kissed him on the mouth]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Questioning Life and Death in War
Kaiser
Did I kill the guy that killed me?
The Sergeant
Yes.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Language Misunderstanding in Combat Conversation
Johnson
How do you say "push" in French?
[concerning a woman in labor]
The Sergeant
Poussez.
Johnson
Pussy! Pussy! Pussy!
[to woman]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Memorial Reflections on War's Continuity
Johnson
Would you look at how fast they put the names of all our guys who got killed?
The Sergeant
That's a World War One memorial.
Johnson
But the names are the same.
The Sergeant
They always are.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Morality of Killing in War Context
The Sergeant
Killing insane people is not good for public relations.
Griff
Killing sane people is okay?
The Sergeant
That's right.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Survival as the True Glory of War
Private Zab
Saving that Kraut was the final joke of the whole goddamned war. I mean we had more in common with him than all our replacements who got killed whose names we never even knew. We'd all made it through we were alive. I'm gonna dedicate my book to those who shot but didn't get shot, because it's about survivors. And surviving is the only glory in war, if you know what I mean.
[narrating]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Tactics for Dealing with Snipers
Private Zab
You know how you smoke out a sniper? You send a guy out in the open and you see if he gets shot. They thought that one up at West Point.
[narrating]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The True Glory of Surviving War
Taglines
The real glory of war is surviving.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Distinction Between Murder and Killing
Griff
I can't murder anybody.
The Sergeant
We don't murder; we kill.
Griff
It's the same thing.
The Sergeant
The hell it is, Griff. You don't murder animals; you kill em.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Unbreakable Bonds from Chance Encounters
Taglines
Only chance could have thrown them together. Now, nothing can pull them apart.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Frustration with Military Invention and Assembly
Private Zab
The Bangalore Torpedo was 50 feet long and packed with 85 pounds of TNT and you assembled it along the way. By hand. I'd love to meet the asshole who invented it.
[narrating]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Significance of the Red One Insignia
The Sergeant
What do you think?
The Captain
What the hell is it?
The Sergeant
It's a "one". First Infantry Division. The Red One; think General Pershing will like it?
The Captain
Oh, sure.
The Sergeant
I got the idea from the cap of a Hun I killed.
The Captain
When?
The Sergeant
About an hour ago
The Captain
Did he yell out anything?
The Sergeant
Oh, the same old Kaiser stuff, you know, "the war's over," all that junk.
The Captain
Finish it.
The Sergeant
Sir?
The Captain
Finish it. The Armistice was signed, at eleven o'clock this morning. The war's been over for four hours. You didn't know it was over.
The Sergeant
...He did.
Zab
A quarter of a century later that piece of cloth from a dead Hun's hat had become famous all over the world. It was the insignia of the First Infantry Division. The Fightin First. The Big Red One.
[narrating]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Survival at Any Cost
The Sergeant
You're going to live, even if I have to blow your brains out.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Tragedy of Transient Comradeship
Private Zab
By now we'd come to look at all replacements as dead men who temporarily had the use of the arms and legs. They came and went so fast and so regularly that sometimes we didn't even learn their names. Truth is, after a while, we sort of avoided gettin to know them.
[narrating]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.