Richard Carmona Quotes

What you experience in the army, aged 18 to 21, is what you take through all your life. You cross invisible lines: you shoot someone, get shot, break into people's houses. It's naive to think you won't carry anything into your life.

As a veteran, I know firsthand the satisfaction there is in defending the democracy you so strongly believe in, but I can also attest to the trauma encountered from combat on the battlefield.

I was in the army, and to me it was like a newsreel.

War was my university. Everything has proceeded from there.

There's nothing like being a soldier for confidence or learning your limits or enduring utter humiliation.

My experience on 'Jarhead' was life changing.

Everything starts and finishes with the soldier.

I never thought anyone would pity me because of my time in the Marine Corps.

The experience of being in the Army changed my whole life; I never believed that an organization such as ours could ever go to war, leave alone win it. It was, as Yeats remarked of the Easter Rising, 'A terrible beauty.'

I was honored to have served in the Army for my country. I was at Anzio during WWII, and it makes you realize how very precious life is.

As a former Airman First Class in the United States Air Force, like many veterans in America, my military experience played an important part in instilling in me a sense of character and discipline that has served me throughout my life.

What war has always been is a puberty ceremony. It's a very rough one, but you went away a boy and came back a man, maybe with an eye missing or whatever but godammit you were a man and people had to call you a man thereafter.

When soldiers have been baptized in the fire of a battle-field, they have all one rank in my eyes.

It is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be a reason the more for us to do it.

I wonder if a soldier ever does mend a bullet hole in his coat?

Pearl Harbor was the defining event in my life. It shaped who I am, and all of my hang-ups and my drives, I think, stem from that.

If I have got to be a soldier, I must be a good one, anything else is unthinkable.

Everybody wants to be good, but not many are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes to be great. To many people, being nice in order to be liked is more important. There's equal merit in that, but you must not confuse being good with being liked.

As a combat veteran, I know the cost of war.

You have to really want to be a Navy SEAL. The passion you need to endure the rigors of training, to become the best of the best... It's admirable.

When you're in the battlefield, survival is all there is. Death is the only great emotion.

I had to learn, really, how to rein in my energies and discipline myself. And I found it very very useful. I rebelled against it at first, but it's a good thing to have.

There's a book that I read, really a great book - it's called 'Lone Survivor' and I think they're trying to make it into a movie. I would love to play Marcus Luttrell, who was the author and the 'lone survivor.' He's a national hero; he's very courageous and heroic in insurmountable danger, so it's something I'd love to explore.

Anyone who says they don't enjoy the Army is mad - you can spend a week hating it and the next week it could be the best thing in the world and the best job you could ever, ever wish for. It has got so much to offer.

I wouldn't trade those 10 years for anything. The Navy taught me a lot of things. It molded me as a man, and I made a lot of wonderful friends.