Sunday, December 11, 2011

101 Warrior Thoughts

From a 30 year Mustang Marine


      101 Warrior Thoughts


          1. Never accept an officer as competent based on his source of commission.



          2. Your right to influence the battlefield is diminished in ratio to the

          distance you are from the actual arena of action.



          3. The battlefield selects its own Generals. No school or board can replace

          it.




          4. Never call fire on your own troops, unless you stand among them.



          5. Leaders are indeed born and no military school can provide what God did

          not.



          6. Equipment procurement will always be compromised by not only being made by

          the lowest bidder, but by attempting to make it multi-functional.



          7. Attempting to lighten the warrior's load by diminishing the weight of any

          given weapon, will always result in shorter range and less firepower.



          8. Excellent staff officers rarely make good battlefield commanders.




          9. Outstanding commanders will surround themselves with excellent staff

          officers.




          10. Never make command a reward for good staff work.



          11. Discipline began its decline with the demise of the swagger stick and

          centralized promotion boards.



          12. Outstanding NCO's may make good officers. But, rarely will a riffed

          officer make a good NCO.



          13. Atheists will never be trusted by their troops on the battlefield.



          14. Women can do many things men do, except for a few days every month.



          15. Going through the change, has nothing to do with the female senior

          officer's uniform.



          16. Sexual harassment is a two-lane road.



          17. Troops tell the truth about good and bad commanders. Their opinion is

          the ultimate evaluation of an officer.



          18. No commander was ever hated for being too hard. But, many are detested

          for trying to cultivate that image, without substance.




          19. The maximum effective range of any weapon is that range at which the

          individual Warrior can hit his target and not an inch further.



          20. Pretty females rarely feel harassed by male counterparts.



          21. Plain-looking female soldiers are usually the best performers and fit in.



          22. Endurance should be judged on the bayonet assault course and not on a

          marathon run.



          23. How far troops can run in shorts is unimportant, compared to how far

          they can speed march with full equipment.



          24. Pregnant females are overweight soldiers. Thus, the US Army Weight

          Control program is not based on equal enforcement of the rules.



          25. Tears on the cheeks of any Marine, regardless of gender, are only

          acceptable on the death of a relative or comrade and when "Old Glory" passes

          by.



          26. Pregnancy is self-inflicted, thus abortions should be paid for by the

          soldier, as a non line of duty procedure.



          27. Marines are not 'sent into combat," they are led.



          28. Your worth as an officer should never be judged on how well you ran with

          a football in college.



          29. West Point is a place of learning, as is Annapolis, Quantico, the Air Force Academy and

          any college. Both produce two types of officer; Good and Bad.



          30. The computer will never be able to judge the content of a Marine's

          spirit, as his Sergeant can.



          31. Esprit De Corps cannot be attained at the Battalion picnic or Sports Day.

          It must be instilled by good leadership and belief in one's fellow Marines.



          32. No new weapon or tactic will ever instill the same fear in the enemy that

          one Marine with a bayonet can.



          33. He who drinks at lunch is a drunken soldier in the afternoon.



          34. No soldier is so smart that his physical deficiencies can be overlooked

          in the Infantry.



          35. Painting rocks and serving drinks to officers, have never been soldierly

          functions. And golf is not a required skill for officers.



          36. Consolidation of all administrative personnel at battalion level has

          eroded accountability and proper reporting.



          37. Anyone who thinks that future battlefields will not contain Infantrymen

          knows nothing about war.



          38. Indecision kills more troops than any wrong decision. One can command

          his way out of a wrong decision.




          39. The only mission of the Infantry is to locate, close with and destroy the enemy.

          "Humanitarian Missions" are someone else's job.




          40. Only the Infantry and Armor can gain ground. Only the Infantry can hold

          it alone.



          41. Special Forces are not Rangers or Light Infantry and should never be

          employed as such.



          42. Rangers are light infantry and are not Special Forces.



          43. Victory is not a limited objective. There is no other reason to engage an

          enemy, except victory.



          44. Never shower or apply after-shave and cologne, forty eight hours prior to

          a night attack.



          45. Sweat is the true lubricant of the Infantry fighting machine.



          46. No American Warrior can be managed to victory. He must be led.



          47. The only color in the U.S. military ground forces is green.



          48. Use of chemical weapons and biological weapons are a crime against

          humanity.



          49. Not training your troops to protect themselves from them is a crime

          against your own troops.



          50. Any tactic written in a book is known to your enemies.



          51. If short hair is truly a matter of hygiene and discipline, then all

          troops must have it.



          52. No member of a soldier's family is more important than the mission.



          53. No warrior can accomplish his mission if the government neglects his family.



          54. Any soldier who sleeps with another soldier's wife or lover cannot be

          trusted on the battlefield and should be shunned.



          55. Officers are more likely to wear unauthorized awards than any NCO or

          Private.



          56. Any officer who claims he is accepting an individual award for the entire

          unit should allow his soldiers to wear it.



          57. There can be no quota for awards.



          58. Any award for Valor is of more value to the Marines than any school diploma

          or certification.



          59. Heroism cannot be taught. But, cowardice is a communicable disease.



          60. The machine gun is too important a weapon to be used as a tool for

          punishing poor soldiers.



          61. Precision weapons will jam, if the Commander demands communal cleaning.



          62. No officer should be given a command, because, he needs one for his

          career.



          63. No officer should be denied a command, because, he already had one.



          64. The state of the military can be evaluated by how its men look in

          uniform, at any airport in the world.



          65. No reporter can be trusted with operational plans. A reporter who reveals

          operational plans is a traitor to his country.




          66. A combat veteran of any war should be respected by all trooops.



          67. American troops do not lose wars. Leaders lose wars.




          68. What a fighter saw with his own eyes, cannot be ignored or changed by

          higher headquarters.



          69. If Special Forces are not assigned strategic missions, they are being

          misused.



          70. The "Hummer" is a vehicle and is the only thing of that name allowed in

          the Infantry.



          71. If you wish to learn about guerrilla warfare, study Francis Marion and

          not Westmoreland or Giap.



          72. The one night you don't dig in, will bring mortars on your position.



          73. Taking the easy way will always get you killed.




          74. Blank ammunition has no place in Infantry training.



          75. The more you restrict Infantrymen possessing live ammunition, the more

          accidents you will have.



          76. The Air Force and Navy are supporting arms.



          77. Intelligence Officer is usually a contradiction in terms.



          78. Inclement weather is the true Infantryman's ally.



          79. There is no special duty so important, that it takes the Infantryman

          away from his squad.




          80. Commanders who use the "Off Limits" authority to deny sex to combat

          troops will have a high V.D. rate.



          81. A Commander's morals are his own and cannot be imposed on his men.



          82. Chaplains must present themselves when the soldier has time, not because

          they have a schedule.



          83. An officer must be judged on his ability and not on how many coffees his

          wife has attended.



          84. Senior officers who allow discussions about a brother officer, not

          present, are not honorable men.




          85. A Commander who bad-mouths his predecessor will never be truly respected.




          86. Equal opportunity is guaranteed by the law and does not require a separate

          staff.



          87. If a Sergeant Major suggests a unit watch, he is the supplier.



          88. The quality of food went down, with the initiation of the consolidated

          mess.



          89. No NCO or Warrant Officer outranks a Second Lieutenant.



          90. Any officer who does not listen to NCO's and Warrant Officers is a fool.



          91. If you wish your subordinates to call you by your first name, go sell

          shoes. There is no place for you in the Marines.



          92. Any Army man who sneers at a Marine for being sharp and well turned out

          is no soldier.



          93. Any Infantryman who must call higher headquarters before engaging the
enemy has a fool for a commander.




          94. Warriors respect leaders worth emulating. They cannot be "ordered" to

          respect anyone.




          95. No man who refused to serve his country in war should be elected or

          appointed over men and women being sent to fight.




          96. The Warrior must obey the orders of all those elected or appointed over

          him.



          97. The "leadership genes" in famous American military families usually

          become weaker as the generations roll by.



          98. A Veteran should not be denied the right to wear his uniform anywhere in America,

          including The White House.




          99. The only truly unique headgear is the one the Army was forced to

          authorize. All others are cheap copies.



          100. There is only one reason to join the Marines and that is to fight and serve the

          Country.




          101. If a Marine or soldier says he hates combat, he is in the wrong profession.



          ABOVE ALL, IF YOU ARE NOT INFANTRY, YOU ARE SUPPORT!


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