Military Aviation Quotes

A modern, autonomous, and thoroughly trained Air Force in being at all times will not alone be sufficient, but without it there can be no national security. ~ Henry H. Arnold

Air power may either end war or end civilization. ~ Winston Churchill

Go in close, and when you think you are too close, go in closer. ~ Thomas McGuire

Not to have an adequate air force in the present state of the world is to compromise the foundations of national freedom and independence. ~ Winston S. Churchill

If you want to grow old as a pilot, you've got to know when to push it, and when to back off. ~ Chuck Yeager

Air control can be established by superiority in numbers, by better employment, by better equipment, or by a combination of these factors. ~ Carl Andrew Spaatz

Always keep an 'out' in your hip pocket. ~ Bevo Howard

Aviation is going to control the world economically and militarily whether we like it or not. Airpower is not merely military aviation, it is also civilian aviation and airpower is peace power. ~ Roscoe Turner

Airpower has become predominant, both as a deterrent to war, and-in the eventuality of war-as the devastating force to destroy an enemy's potential and fatally undermine his will to wage war. ~ Omar N. Bradley

Once the command of the air is obtained by one of the contending armies, the war becomes a conflict between a seeing host and one that is blind. ~ H.G.Wells

In the early 1930s, flying from England to Australia was the longest flight in the world. It was considered extremely dangerous and hazardous, pushing pilots to the limits of mechanical skills and human endurance. Aviation was young. ~ Mary Garden

The emergencies you train for almost never happen. It's the one you can't train for that kills you. ~ Ernest K. Gann

At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation. This principle finds its clearest expression today in the work of the IAEA and its director general. In the nuclear non-proliferation regime, it is the IAEA which ensures that nuclear energy is not misused for military purposes, and the director general has stood out as an unafraid advocate of new measures to strengthen that regime. ~ Mohamed ElBaradei

This conversation revealed to Odo a third conception of the religious idea. In Piedmont religion imposed itself as a military discipline, the enforced duty of the Christian citizen to the heavenly state; to the Duke it was a means of purchasing spiritual immunity from the consequences of bodily weakness; to the Bishop, it replaced the panem et circenses of ancient Rome. Where, in all this, was the share of those whom Christ had come to save? Where was Saint Francis's devotion to his heavenly bride, the Lady Poverty? Though here and there a good parish priest like Crescenti ministered to the temporal wants of the peasantry, it was only the free-thinker and the atheist who, at the risk of life and fortune, laboured for their moral liberation. Odo listened with a saddened heart, thinking, as he followed his host through the perfumed shade of the gardens, and down ~ Edith Wharton

War would end if the dead could return. ~ Stanley Baldwin

Is not Alliance training," he says. "I spend six months in military prison once. Other man in cell, he was boxer. Before military, he fight in underworld ring, for money. He teach me how to punch the color out of a man's hair. I go easy on you because I am guest here. ~ Marko Kloos

I saw how different life was on different sides of the same city. I saw the fear in the eyes of people who were not free. I saw the gratitude of people toward the United States for all that we had done. I felt goosebumps as I got off a military train and heard the Army band strike up 'Stars and Stripes Forever.' ~ John F. Kerry

It is incumbent upon us to respond to the unique needs of military women and ensure they receive proper care during the first year following childbirth. ~ Susan Collins

Suddenly he goes into the last phase - the human virus bomb explodes. Military biohazard specialists have ways of describing this occurrence. They say that the victim has "crashed and bled out." Or more politely they say that the victim has "gone down. ~ Richard Preston

Those who ran away are now outside the distant perimeter wall of the airport. Now they're outside the wall and the heroic Republican Guard is now in control of the whole area of Saddam International Airport. So where are those villainous louts, those mercenaries? ~ Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf

I think one of the great disasters (in military history) is the way that the Second World War has become the defining reference point for every crisis and every conflict. ~ Antony Beevor

Now listen, buddy, there are a few corny ideas you got to get out of your head if you're going to fly an airplane. Most things are just the reverse from what people think. The higher you are the safer you are. The Earth down there, that, that-s your enemy because once you hit that, boy, you splatter. ~ Dalton Trumbo

Demoralize the enemy from within by surprise, terror, sabotage, assassination. This is the war of the future. ~ Adolf Hitler

I'm sorry."
"For what?" She stood.
"I had no intention of letting that go so far."
"I had no intention of stopping until it did."
He laughed and shook his head. "You're making it hard to leave, you know."
That was her plan. Ally cocked a brow. "Am I? Sorry ... " She wasn't sorry one little bit. ~ Cat Johnson

It was right that she was now staying at the ranch. She belonged there.
She belonged with him.
Always had. Always would. ~ Donna Grant

Though many of the poor have come to see the affluent middle class as its enemy, that class actually stands between the poor and the real powers in this society - the administrative octopus with its head in Washington, the conglomerates, the military complex. ~ Cesar Chavez

The moon is essentially gray, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish beach sand. ~ Jim Lovell

But there's one word. You look at any other term of political discourse, and you're going to find the same thing: the terms of political discourse are designed so as to prevent thought. One of the main ones is this notion of "defense." So look at the diplomatic record of any country you want-Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Libya, pick your favorite horror-story-you'll find that everything they ever did was "defensive"; I'm sure if we had records from Genghis Khan we would find that what he was doing was "defensive" too. And here in the United States you cannot challenge that-no matter how absurd it gets. ~ Noam Chomsky

Ironically, the possibility that the president dodged his military service has increased his approval ratings with Democrats by 80 percent. ~ Craig Kilborn

Almost everything else I have done during my adult years has been affected to some extent by my name - by my father's position, if you will. But in the air, I had no name; to the Federal Aviation Agency I was simply Comanche Nine-Nine POP. The quality of my landings, navigation and judgment were mine alone. ~ John Eisenhower

For those of us who live in the shadow of this noisy monster, there aren't too many of us who are sorry to see it go. ~ Anthony Weiner

The Boeing 747 is the commuter train of the global village. ~ Hendrik Tennekes

If I really had to pinpoint my happiest days out of the United States, I'd choose those Fifties military days in Britain, particularly my time in South Ruislip. I had a ball. ~ Larry Hagman

Along the borders to Ethiopia and Somalia, anarchy reigns, the police and military have retreated quite some distance. ~ Richard Leakey

I decided that if I could fly for ten years before I was killed in a crash, it would be a worthwhile trade for an ordinary life time. ~ Charles Lindbergh

Germany, which has lately united 80 million Germans, has submitted certain neighboring countries to her supremacy and gained military strength in many aspects, and thus has become, as clearly can be seen, a dangerous rival to principal imperialistic powers in Europe - England and France. That is why they declared war on Germany on a pretext of fulfilling the obligations given to Poland. It is now clearer than ever, how remote the real aims of the cabinets in these countries were from the interests of defending the now disintegrated Poland or Czechoslovakia. ~ Vyacheslav Molotov

The less there is of fear, the less there is of danger. ~ Livy

The British Labour Party has always had a very strong "Atlanticist component," with an obsequiousness to American policies, and Blair represents this wing. He's clearly obsessed with Iraq. He has to be because the overwhelming majority of the people of Britain oppose a military action. ~ John Pilger

Just as ancient tyrants gave the people bread and circuses, in exchanged for their loyalty, so visions can acquire a tyrannical sway over people's minds by offering them an exalted sense of themselves in exchange for their loyalty to the vision through all the vicissitudes of facts to the contrary. This self-exaltation can take on many forms on many issues.
Whether the particular issue is crime, automobile safety, income statistics, military defense, or overpopulation theories, the one consistency among them is that the conclusions reached exalt those who share the vision over the great unwashed who do not. ~ Thomas Sowell

The main thing is to make history not to write it ~ Otto Von Bismarck

Brandi and I struggled with our marriage, but it was obvious we were falling apart as a couple. That was probably clear to me even from as far away as Iraq, but I did try to make it better. One day I suggested marriage counseling. Initially Brandi agreed. I took advantage of the fact that the military has a program called Military OneSource. It's basically one-stop shopping for all the help you could need from moving, to retirement, to marriage counseling, as it turns out. So I called one day and asked to be set up with a marriage counselor. The morning of our appointment Brandi decided she didn't want to go. She didn't give much detail other than to say, "I'm not going." Annoyed, I said, "Well shit. I'm going."
I arrived and sat down in a chair across the counselor. He looked at the empty chair next to me and started flipping through the paperwork on his clipboard. Finally he looked up and asked, "I have down that you're here for marriage counseling?"
"Yes, sir, I am," I answered matter-of-factly. Again he looked at the empty seat next to me and then back at me.
And then, in a really deadpan tone, he said, "Huh. Seems like things are going well. ~ Noah Galloway

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling. ~ James Mattis

My family thought if I spent time in the military, I'd become more reasonable, a bit calmer. But I've always been extreme in what I do - both as a believer and a nonbeliever. ~ Shahin Najafi

I refused to take no for an answer. ~ Bessie Coleman

How do people get to this clandestine Archipelago? Hour by hour planes fly there, ships steer their course there, and trains thunder off to it--but all with nary a mark on them to tell of their destination. And at ticket windows or at travel bureaus for Soviet or foreign tourists the employees would be astounded if you were to ask for a ticket to go there. They know nothing and they've never heard of the Archipelago as a whole or any one of its innumerable islands.

Those who go to the Archipelago to administer it get there via the training schools of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Those who go there to be guards are conscripted via the military conscription centers.

And those who, like you and me, dear reader, go there to die, must get there solely and compulsorily via arrest.

Arrest! Need it be said that it is a breaking point in your life, a bolt of lightning which has scored a direct hit on you? That it is an unassimilable spiritual earthquake not every person can cope with, as a result of which people often slip into insanity?

The Universe has as many different centers as there are living beings in it. Each of us is a center of the Universe, and that Universe is shattered when they hiss at you: "You are under arrest."

If you are arrested, can anything else remain unshattered by this cataclysm?

But the darkened mind is incapable of embracing these dis­placements in our universe, and both the mo ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

You can't imagine a world, quite frankly, without a safe and secure aviation system. And so our job is to really focus on that, and what we need to do to keep it safe and secure. ~ Janet Napolitano

The basis on which the Good Friday agreement was constructed was in addressing those problems in the history of Northern Ireland, the social and constitutional problems as well as the military problems that have been unaddressed for centuries. ~ John Reid

Under Syrian law, a journalist is not allowed to report on military matters. This may be wrong or right, but that's just the way it is. ~ Bashar Al-Assad

Technology is often portrayed as an objective measure of development, and its advancement as something that can be examined outside of politics. But the history of technology, particularly military technology, has been deeply inflected by nationalist sentiment. ~ Peter A. Lorge

We don't want to impose our solutions by force, we want to create a democratic space. We don't see armed struggle in the classic sense of previous guerrilla wars, that is as the only way and the only all-powerful truth around which everything is organized. In a war, the decisive thing is not the military confrontation but the politics at stake in the confrontation. We didn't go to war to kill or be killed. We went to war in order to be heard. ~ Subcomandante Marcos

Look at the bow in the cloud, in the very rain itself. That is a sign that the sun, though you cannot see it, is shining still
that up above beyond the cloud is still sunlight and warmth and cloudless blue sky. ~ Charles Kingsley

The Sun Tzu School (which wrote the Art of War) surely never imagined that their antiwar, pro-empire treatise would become known and accepted after the fall of the first empire as a text on military tactics. Likewise, they would have been surprised to see the Ping-fa military metaphor - an inspired teaching device - come to be seen as the message and not the medium. ~ David G. Jones

We decided to read our emails out loud to the group in order to share the warmth and optimism the messages contained. One of the most heartwarming was from the father of Petty Officer Rodney "RaRa" Young of Katy, Texas. His dad got right to the point: "You'd better come home because you promised to help me put up a fence, and I could really use that help." Everyone laughed because the words took us back to the normal world and out of the anxious monotony of our detention. ~ Shane Osborn

The Memorabilia, the abbey's small patrimony of knowledge out of the past, had been walled up in underground vaults to protect the priceless writings from both nomads and soidisant crusaders of the schismatic Orders, founded to fight the hordes, but turned to random pillaging and sectarian strife. Neither the nomads nor the Military Order of San Pancratz would have valued the abbey's books, but the nomads would have destroyed them for the joy of destruction and the military knightsfriars would have burned many of them as "heretical" according to the theology of Vissarion, their Antipope. ~ Walter M. Miller Jr.

It's the secrecy surrounding drone strikes that's most troubling. . . We don't know the targeting criteria, or whether the rules for CIA and military drone strikes differ; we don't know the details of the internal process through which targets are vetted; we don't know the chain of command, or the details of congressional oversight. The United States does not release the names of those killed, or the location or number of strikes, making it impossible to know whether those killed were legitimately viewed as combatants or not. We also don't know the cost of the secret war: How much money has been spent on drone strikes? What's the budget for the related targeting and intelligence infrastructures? How is the government assessing the costs and benefits of counterterrorism drone strikes? That's a lot of secrecy for a targeted killing program that has reportedly caused the deaths of several thousand people. (117-118) ~ Rosa Brooks

I make war on the living, not the dead. ~ Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Because I was into like proving myself, which was one of the big things that ah, that the whole military experience sort of offers a kid at that age, um, I went to officer candidate school. Um, and I graduated as a second lieutenant at the age of nineteen. ~ Peter P. Mahoney

So you're ex-Royal Navy, right?'
He tensed. 'How do you know that?'
Lucy pointed at his arm. 'Cabot wristwatch. It's a dead giveaway.' Marc frowned. The military-issue dive watch was the only connection he still had to that part of his past. 'And also my boss is a billionaire, remember?' The woman went on. 'Information gets bought real easy, if you know how to deal.' She smiled again. 'So you're all about Queen and Country. From navy puke to covert spook, all for the union jack.'
'Something like that,' he muttered. 'And just so you know, we only call the flag the 'union jack' if it's flying on a ship. ~ James Swallow

My one concern is that when money gets tight, it's easy to cut R&D funding that isn't tied to a specific project - look at what's happened to NASA's aviation research. ~ Henry Spencer