Mark Esper Quotes

When I went through Marine boot camp in Paris Island, South Carolina, we actually did have bayonets that we trained with.

We had times in '66 and '67 when we would pick up a platoon of privates out of the receiving barracks the week before we even graduated the platoon that we were on!

I graduated boot camp with meritorious promotion.

There have been a lot of changes in recruit training in the past twenty years.

Back in the old Corp, we weren't training those privates to infiltrate into the peacetime Marine Corp. We were training those privates to go to Vietnam.

I came to my first Colts training camp in July of 1950, and it was murder, absolute murder. We had a coach named Clem Crow who must have been nuts. You got to remember that I'd been a Marine, had gone through basic training and spent 26 months in the Pacific during WWII, but the Marine drill instructors had nothing on Clem.

The best part about the movie, and everybody seems to rave about it, is the boot camp part.

One doesn't become a soldier in a week - it takes training, study and discipline. There is no question that the finest Army in the world is found in the United States.

After a hard day of basic training, you could eat a rattlesnake.

Boot camp sucks - SEAL training sucks - but you know what? That's what makes you good.

Believe it or not, the Navy requires plebes to actually be able to swim.

Most veterans detested training camp, but not me. I loved having a dorm room and a little fridge with snacks, and I looked forward to goofing around in the meetings.

We usually use that mostly on the weekends because we have access to the range during the week. But I can tell you a number of times they have had a training holiday at Fort Benning, so nobody trains, and to drag him in is like pulling teeth.

In order to drill into young men the need to stay alert and stay alive, I used to punish offenders with my fists, boots and rifle butt, and with stockade time.

Basic SEAL training is six months of long, torturous runs in the soft sand, midnight swims in the cold water off San Diego, obstacles courses, unending calisthenics, days without sleep and always being cold, wet and miserable.

Army life was rough. Would you believe it, they actually wanted me to pitch three times a week.

In the British Special Air Service, combat fitness is all about running.

Basic training is horrible. It's dirty, and it's ugly. But you learn it's not just about you. It makes you part of a team, which helps you to survive.

I joined the Marines, passed Special Forces selection, and became a young leader in the military.

The first time I ever went to Texas was on a bus with curtains draped over the windows. I just joined the military and got shipped off to basic training in San Antonio.

I need eight weeks, train hard, last one week make weight, and go to the war. Because when I go to the war, I have to know I am ready or no.

I'm very much into Barry's Boot Camp... it's the real deal.

As a Navy SEAL, and sniper, one of the things I learned was that excellence matters.

I have done a lot greater things than 'Survivor.' Going through SEAL training was much harder than 'Survivor.'

There was always talk of espirit de corps, of being gung ho, and that must have been a part of it. Better, tougher training, more marksmanship on the firing range, the instant obedience to orders seared into men in boot camp.