Joni Ernst Quotes

In my teens, I joined the Parachute Regiment. I jumped out of lots of airplanes, as much as the Government budget would allow us to. I did two active tours of duty: Northern Ireland, and then the Falklands war.

I am very proud of my service, and by law, I am defined as a combat veteran.

I'm a combat soldier.

I was sent to Korea, which was excellent training for what came later. I was assigned to remain on duty until I completed one hundred combat missions - or got knocked out - whichever came first.

I served two tours of duty in Vietnam. I won the Bronze Star. I won the Purple Heart.

As a Marine officer in combat, I was responsible for the lives and safety of all the Marines who served with me.

I have spent the past ten years in just about every war zone there was.

Washington has thrown their soldiers on the fire.

I'd been in college studying English creative writing and history when I made the decision to join the Marines in the runup to the Iraq war.

I got to travel around Anbar Province, had a great group of Marines who worked for me who traveled around Anbar Province. I got to hang out with a lot of different types of Marines and soldiers and sailors.

I am in the infantry for 17 weeks and after that I don't know where I am going.

You've got all these people making action movies, and they've never been in a life-or-death situation.

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

They told me I'd never probably see the front-line area.

I taught high school for one year in Deerfield Beach, Fla., and in the end, it was such an enjoyable experience breaking up fights daily, that I decided to return to the combat zone of Afghanistan.

I went to Vietnam during the Vietnam War to visit all the troops. We would fly into a hospital and serve mess to the guys, and we ate whatever they were eating. Then we slept there and flew out the next day to little bases where there were maybe 10 or 20 guys. Then we flew to another hospital.

Mike Hall was my old friend and, more important, the finest soldier I'd ever known. After over 30 years of service and then 18 months at a good civilian job, a phone call had brought the retired command sergeant major back on active duty to become the senior enlisted adviser of all international forces in Afghanistan.

Against the wishes of my family, I gave up my legal career, and I volunteered for the Army. I became an infantryman. I went to Iraq and Afghanistan.

My time in war zones have been fleeting and infrequent. I've been to Iraq. I've been to Afghanistan. I've been to other places where I've collected hazardous duty pay.

When I was in the Army, 100 percent of our effort was to really be sharp, and soldiers, we were under live fire all the time.

I am a retired United States Marine Corporal and I started out in 2nd Battalion Night Marines on my deployment and I finished my career in the Marine Corps at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as a patient.

My eyes are wide open... you serve in Iraq, your eyes are wide open.

I could always fight overseas, but who wants to do that? They'd really have to make it worth my while.

I come from a service family - I met my husband Dave during my third tour in Iraq serving as a CIA analyst alongside the military.

The best time of being a Marine was Afghanistan. There will never be a time when I'm sleeping in the dirt and I haven't showered in four months and I'm with 50 of the people that I'll be the closest with ever.