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

These are all cited in At First Light, from Chapters 36-41.

“The most difficult and responsible duty any young officer can be assigned in action is the command of a rifle company of an Infantry Battalion.” — Lieutenant General Benjamin Lear[1]

“War was an introduction to an adult life marked by outrunning death every day.” — Unknown[2]

“When men take up arms to set other men free,  there is something sacred and holy in the warfare.” — Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States (1913–1921)[3]

“Previous combat experience has taught us that casualties are lumped primarily in the rifle platoons. For here are concentrated the handful of troops that must advance under enemy fire. It is upon them that the burden of war falls with the greatest risk and with less likelihood of survival than in any other of the combat arms.” — Sergeant Charles O. Beardslee of the 3rd Infantry Division[4]

“Those who have not been in the forward areas can never hope to fully comprehend the awful reality of Infantry combat. However, we can arrive at a deeper understanding of the grimly determined, glorious men who are serving throughout the world as our spokesman for freedom—our combat Infantrymen.” — Lieutenant General Benjamin Lear, Commander of the U.S. Second Army[5]

“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others.” — British Prime Minister Winston Churchill[6]

“To find a horse like this, in the middle of this filthy abomination of a war, is for me like finding a butterfly on a dung heap. We don’t belong in the same universe as a creature like this.” — Sir Michael Morpurgo, British author and playwright[7]

~~~~~

[1] Larimore, At First Light, 197.

[2] Ibid, 205.

[3] Ibid, 211.

[4] Ibid, 213.

[5] Ibid, 218.

[6] Ibid, 223.

[7] Ibid, 229.

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

© Copyright WLL, INC. 2024.