Tim O'Brien Quotes

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 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.

I have great difficulty in finding a good reason for telling boys eighteen years old they should not go in the Army. I presume this is because I think there is nothing more important in the world than to win this war [World War II], because if we don't win it there won't be any schools to go to.

Thirty days after high-school graduation, I went straight into the Marines.

After the United States entered the war, I joined the Naval Reserve and spent ninety days in a Columbia University dormitory learning to be a naval officer.

I received my parents' permission and went into the Navy on June 3, 1941.

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 have no personal experience in the military. All I know about it is what I've seen in movies and read in books and watched on television. My knowledge is probably no more or no less than the average person's. 'A Brief Encounter with the Enemy' was created by taking bits and pieces from here and there, and then putting my own spin on them.

You'd be surprised how many kids and young people come to the website and send me email that they are actually going into the Marine Corp because of something that I said or did.

It is the duty of our men to enroll themselves in the national services. We need all our manpower for defence. For the military and... we need a quarter of a million men.

I've been extremely lucky having been in the army when I was a boy of fourteen.

Avenge Pearl Harbor! : Join the navy now!

Each man ... shall serve for a training and service period of 12 consecutive months unless sooner discharged, except that whenever the Congress has declared that the national interest is imperiled, such 12-month period may be extended by the President to such time as may be necessary in the interests of national defense.

Your King and Country need you.

I want you for US Army

Nobody wants to go to war, but the burden of service cannot fall only on volunteers who, are attracted to the military for financial reasons.

Public opinion said that every man who did not embrace the very surest and earliest opportunity of getting himself mustered into actual service was a coward.

For a soldier I enlisted, to grow great in fame. And be shot at for sixpence a day.

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!

The day after high school, I was off to basic training at the Great Lakes Naval Station. You gotta understand, we didn't care about sports. We wanted to win the war. We wanted to win the war! And at the time, we didn't know if we would.

At 19, I joined the Air Force during the Vietnam War.

I can tell you this: If I'm ever in a position to call the shots, I'm not going to rush to send somebody else's kids into a war.

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.

With no draft, the only people who went to war were those who wanted to, or at least those who wanted to join the military.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for military families. To have to worry about your loved ones and still try and live a normal life is extremely hard.