Here are some more of my Dad’s favorite quotes about the Infantrymen he served with and loved and one about some war horses he saved that I used in my book, At First Light. 

These are all cited in At First Light, from Part 3 and chapters 22-28.

“We have faith that future generations will know … there came a time when men of goodwill found a way to unite and produce and fight to destroy the forces of ignorance and intolerance and slavery and war.” — U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt [1]

“The Infantryman…the man who has, in the final analysis, been winning the wars ever since men first were organized into groups when they went to the fighting. Yet from the standpoint of public appreciation, he has been the Army’s most neglected and underrated soldier.” — Robert Vermillion, United Press war correspondentduring World War II [2]

“Our secret weapon is the Infantry—the weapon about which we have talked the least and upon which we depend the most. The Infantry closes with the enemy, meets him in hand-to-hand conflict, kills him or drives him backward, and seizes the ground…which only he can take and hold.” — Steve Early, press secretary for President Franklin D. Roosevelt [3]

“There’s nothing I don’t know about war. The stench of it …. War is a terrible thing.” — Don McCullin, award-winning war photographer [4]

“Rider and horse … each is totally reliant upon the other. Each is the selfless guardian of the other’s very well-being.” — Author Unknown [5]

“Relatively few soldiers actually experience the unglamorous, unenviable, unique life of a combat Infantrymen.I can’t credit the saying that it took nine men in rearareas to keep one man fighting. I’ll swear it took 900.” — Warren P. Munsell, Jr., author of The Story of a Regiment [6]

“All battles and all wars are won in the end by the Infantryman. The Infantryman has to use initiative and intelligence in almost every step he moves, every action he takes on the battlefield. The Infantryman always bears the brunt. His casualties are heavier; he suffers greater extremes of discomfort and fatigue than the other arms.” — British Field Marshal Archibald Wavell [7]

“I don’t think any man can exactly explain combat. It’s beyond words. Take a combination of fear, anger, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, disgust, loneliness, homesickness, and wrap that all up in one reaction, and you might approach the feelings a fellow has. It makes you feel mighty small, helpless, and alone.” — Private Paul Curtis of Oak Ridge, Tennessee [8]

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[1] Larimore, At First Light, 119.

[2] Ibid, 121.

[3] Ibid, 125.

[4] Ibid, 130.

[5] Ibid, 134.

[6] Ibid, 139.

[7] Ibid, 148.

[8] Ibid, 151.

In case you haven’t read or listened to Dad’s book, you can learn more about it or order it here.

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