Steve Blank Quotes

You don't have to be in Nam to be in Nam.

When I volunteered for the draft as a 20-year-old, mischievous guy at the height of the Vietnam War, most thought I was destined to pass from this earth early!

When I was 18, I went into the army as a payroll clerk because otherwise I was headed for Korea.

I wore the cloth of the nation for over 31 years in peace and war, from the Vietnam and Cold War eras, to Afghanistan and Iraq, and the emergence of China.

The other thing that happened was my last military assignment - this was in the air force; I had enlisted in order to avoid being drafted as a private, and of course I only practiced medicine or psychiatry in the air force so I was never in any kind of violent combat.

I am one of the million or more male residents of the United Kingdom, who a year ago had no special yearning towards military life, but who joined the army after war was declared.

The thing about the Air Force or any branch of the military is that all of us were plucked away from our homes and our comfort zones and our families. So there was a solidarity in the military, a brotherhood.

I've done two USO Tours, one in the Middle East and one in Asia, and spent time with the troops.

I received my draft notice right after graduation from college and had three months before going into the Army in September to think about it.

Lyndon Johnson may have escalated the war, but when I was drafted and shipped off to Vietnam, the signature on my orders was Nixon's.

While shooting 'The Unit', I went to the Middle East twice to see the troops. I met some great men and women.

The military is a very cool world to write about. I went down to Ft. Benning, Ga., for military training, and I learned a lot about soldiers and officers and why they joined up and what their life has been like.

I was drafted when I was 17, and I spent two years, and I lost a friend in war.

I do not want to send anybody else's child to war.

My dad has been in the military for 35 years. My brother's in the Air Force. I'm familiar with what it's like being in a military family - the unusual traumas you carry around with you.

I grew up in a military family. My father spent 26 years in the Air Force.

I was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq with British Special Forces Units. I have great respect for the British military and the country as a whole, so I don't have anything negative to say about that.

My father fought alongside Aussie and U.S. soldiers in the Vietnam War.

In 1993, I joined the Croatian army. I was a radio telegraphist.

I'd lived through World War II and hadn't been able to wait to join the army as soon as I turned 18.

I was kind of confused. I thought, Well, if I get drafted, I'll go. Everybody was very concerned with it. I had friends who went. Some that came back and some that didn't.

I've been in Iraq, and it never occurred to me to go, 'Hey, this war is bogus,' to some guy who's 24 hours a day trying not to get shot at or blown up.

U.S. soldiers, with whom I now have more than a passing acquaintance, joke that they track my movements in order to know where they will be deployed next.

As the daughter of a 25-year veteran of the armed forces, I am incredibly thankful for the sacrifices our women and men have made in Iraq, and continue to make in Afghanistan.

I always wanted to go into the military or something like that - my whole family, all my friends are either Air Force, Navy, or Marines.