When I was at Kemper I had a book with blank pages that I used to collect sayings, quotes, poetry I wrote and things of that nature. I would kid Beaver about it, either during D & D sessions or when he needed relationship advice, I would say, 'Lets see what the book of Confucius has to say.' So they became the books of Confucius. Over the years they have expanded, and some are in bad shape, and I think I only completed one. For some reason I would stop them. I don't know, maybe some kind of tragic event; a girl broke up with me or broke my heart or I just had a feeling or I found a book that I liked better. One was a full size sketch book that the cover has fallen apart. I tried numbering and had contact info in them. Its like a road map of where I was. A lot had stuff that was in previous volumes. My favorite of course being the Capt. G.L. Skypeck's The Soldier. The Object of Kemper. And a few others that have become favorites. So I thought I would share some of those tid bits of wisdom here. Now, to some it may not be much to them. But then you haven't been where I have.
'A soldier watched his buddy's back and that was it. No need to ask for help or offer thanks to any of the living when the smoke had cleared. Tomorrow it could be someone else's world in jeopardy, and yesterday's potential victim would be riding withe cavalry again.'
'Once a man has lived as a matador, he could never know again what it would be to live without the exhilarating tension of staring death in the eyes.'
'Against naked force the only possible defense is naked force, The aggressor makes the rules for such a war; the defenders have no alternative but to match destruction with more destruction, slaughter with greater slaughter.' FDR
'You can't negotiate with terrorists. That only encourages them. What you do is shoot them as quickly as you can. and when they take hostages to demand that other terrorists be freed, you end the situation quickly and execute those that the terrorists demanded. You eliminate the problem. You make terrorism a deadly game for the terrorists. If they try something, they must know they are going to die.'
'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.'
There is an article out there that I have recopied so many times-called "Why Men Love War." I found it in the 1980's in Esquire magazine. It is one of the best written articles about men (and women) who serve in war. It says what I have always believed; In my opinion, that man is naturally a violent animal. You put two men or two women or a man and a women together-eventually they are going to fight. You escalate the numbers and you have war. It also talks about War as a game. I am not doing the article justice. But everyone who I have ever had read it, understand it. Especially those that wore a uniform.
'The enduring emotion of war, when everything else has faded is comradeship. A comrade in war is a man you can trust with anything, because you trust him with your life. "It is," Philip Caputo wrote in A Rumor of War "unlike marriage, a bond that can not be broken by a word, by boredom or divorce or by anything other than death." Despite its extreme right-wing image, war is the only Utopian experience most of us ever have. Individual possessions and advantages count for nothing; the group is everything. What you have is shared with your friends. It isn't a particularly selective process, but a love that needs no reasons, that transcends race and personality and education-all those things that would make a difference in peace. It is simply, brotherly love.
What made this love so intense was that it had no limits, not even death. John Wheeler in Touched With Fire quotes the Congressional Medal of Honor citation of Hector Santiago-Colon: "Due to the heavy volume of enemy fire and exploding grenades around them, a North Vietnamese soldier was able to crawl undetected to their position. Suddenly, the enemy soldier lobbed a hand grenade into Spc4. Santiago-Colon's foxhole. Realizing that there was no time to throw the grenade out of his position, Spc4 Santiago-Colon retrieved the grenade, tucked it into his stomach, and, turning away from his comrades, absorbed the full impact of the blast." This is classic heroism, the final evidence of how much comrades can depend on each other. What went through Snatiago-Colon's mind for that split second when he could just as easily have dived to safety? It had to be this: my comrades are more important to me than my most valuable position-my own life.'
I have always believed that. When I was at Kemper, I knew what my friends would do at almost any given situation. That's why I always say I would trust George with my life. But if he said, "Here, try this." I wouldn't. I told George that once and he laughed. He said, "Yeah, unless I said, No, really, try this." I laughed even harder and told him I wouldn't try that ESPECIALLY if he said that.
I need to find that article and put it on here.
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