Anthony Swofford

“There was no such thing as a private life, all lives were public.”

“Every war is different. Every war is the same.”

“It occured to me that we will never be young again.”

“Now I often think of the first time I received artillery fire, and the subsequent obliteration of the enemy observation post. I'll never know how many men manned the OP, but in memory I fix the number at two, and though at the time I was angry that the pompus captain took the handset from me and stole m y kills, I have lately been thankful he insisted on calling the fire mission, ans sometimes when I am feeling hopeful or even religious, I think that buy taking my two kills the pompous captain handed me life, some extra moments of living for myself or that I can offer others, though I have no idea to use or disuse these extra moments, or if I've wasted them already.”

“Some wars are unavoidable and need well be fought, but this doesn't erase warfare's waste. Sorry, we must say to the mothers whose son's die horribly. This will never end. Sorry.”

“It dosnt matter how many mr. and mrs. johnsons are anti war- the actuall killers who know how to use the weapons are not.”

“I have gone to war and now I can issue my complaint. I can sit on my porch and complain all day. And you must listen. Some of you will say to me: You signed the contract, you crying bitch, and you fought in a war because of your signature, no one held a gun to your head. This is true, but because I signed the contract and fulfilled my obligation to fight one of America’s wars, I am entitled to speak, to say, I belong to a fucked situation.”

“During the few months Troy had been back home, he’d told his friends about us, and so we quickly eased into the conversation as though we’d all known each other for many years. They embarrassed us with great thanks for having served overseas. They recounted combat events Troy had told them, and we realized by the context of their stories that Troy had made us heroes for his friends because we’d been heroes to him. At this point I was the saddest I’d yet been over Troy’s passing, because the true friend from war is the friend who obliterates his own story by telling the stories of others.”

“If while alive you hurt or disappoint people you love, there's no use continuing such behavior when you're dead.”

“My despair is less despair than boredom and loneliness.”

“My combat action has commenced... I've pissed my pants, but only a little.”

“Was your old man in the war?""He was in the air force. He built runways.""The fucking air farce. He ever tell you about it? Did he live?""Yes, he lived. He spoke once about Vietnam.""If he only spoke about it once, he wasn’t lying.”