Memorial Day Tribute

I post this every year because these are two of my favorite speeches or pictures of our military. They deserve major respect today. God bless our fallen.

From Patton (edited!):

Now, I want you to remember that no *** ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb *** die for his country. Men, all this stuff you’ve heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle. When you were kids, you all admired the champion marble shooter, the fastest runner, the big league ball player, the toughest boxer. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost and will never lose a war. Because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.

Now, an Army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of crap. The bilious *** who wrote that stuff about individuality for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know anything more about real battle than they do about ***.

We have the finest food and equipment, the best spirit and the best men in the world. You know, by God I actually pity those poor *** we’re going up against. By God, I do. We’re not just going to shoot the ***, we’re going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun's by the bushel.

Now, some of you boys, I know, are wondering whether or not you'll chicken out under fire. Don't worry about it. I can assure you that you will all do your duty. The Nazis are the enemy. Wade into them. Spill their blood. Shoot them in the belly. When you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do.

Now there’s another thing I want you to remember. I don’t want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We’re not holding anything. Let the Hun do that. We are advancing constantly and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy. We're going to hold onto him by the nose and we're going to kick him. We're going to kick the heck out of him all the time and we're gonna go through him like crap through a goose.

There’s one thing that you men will be able to say when you get back home. And you may thank God for it. Thirty years from now when you’re sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what did you do in the great World War II, you won’t have to say, "Well, I shoveled manure in Louisiana."

Alright now, you know how I feel. Oh, and I will be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle – anytime, anywhere.

And from Rambo (also edited):

"Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me I didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win, for somebody who wouldn't let us win! Then I come back to the world, and I see all those maggots at the airport, protestin' me, spittin', callin' me a baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me?! Huh?! Who are they?! Unless they been me and been there and know what the heck they yellin' about!"

For me civilian life is nothin'! In the field we had a code of honor. You watch my back I watch yours. Back here there's nothin'! Back there I could fly a gunship, I could drive a tank, I was in charge of million dollar equipment. Back here I can't even hold a job PARKING CARS!!!!
Wha... I can't... oh, I just--. Where is everybody? Oh ... I... I had a friend, who was Danforth. Wha--I had all these guys man. Back there I had all these guys. Who were my friends. Cause back here there's nothin'. Remember Danforth? He wore this black head band and I took one of those magic markers and I said to Feron, 'Hey mail us to Las Vegas cause we were always talkin' about Vegas, and this car. This uh red '58 Chevy convertible, he was talkin' about this car, he said we were gonna cruise till the tires fall off.
We were in this bar in Saigon. And this kid comes up, this kid carryin' a shoe shine box, and eh he says uh 'shine please, shine.' I said no, eh an' uh, he kept askin' yeah and Joey said 'yeah,' and I went to get a couple beers and the ki--the box was wired, and he opened up the box, blew his body all over the place. And he's layin' there and he's screamin', there's pieces of him all over me, just like--! like this. And I'm tryin' to pull em off you know? And he.. MY FRIEND IT'S ALL OVER ME! IT'S GOT BLOOD AND EVERYTHING! And I'm tryin' to hold him together I put him together his insides keep coming out, AND NOBODY WOULD HELP!! Nobody help me. He sayin' please I wanna go home I wanna go home. He keeps callin' my name, I wanna go home Johnny, I wanna drive my Chevy. I said well WHY I can't find your legs. I can't find you legs. (softly now) I can't get it out of my head. I --I dream of seven years. Everyday I have this. And sometimes I wake up and I dunno where I am. I don't talk to anybody. Sometimes a day--a week. I can't put it out of my mind...I can't......."