Eugene B. Sledge Quotes

#1. Something in me died at Peleliu. Perhaps it was the childish innocence that accepted as faith the claim that Man is basically good. Possibly I lost faith that politicians in high places, who do not have to endure war's savagery, will ever stop blundering and sending others to endure it.

Eugene B. Sledge

#2. And I didn't neglect to point out to my Yankee buddies that most of the high shooters in our platoon were Southern boys.

Eugene B. Sledge

#3. As I looked at the stains on the coral, I recalled some of the eloquent phrases of politicians and newsmen about how "gallant" it is for a man to "shed his blood for his country," and "to give his life's blood as a sacrifice," and so on. The words seemed ridiculous. Only the flies benefited.

Eugene B. Sledge

#4. I think the Marine Corps has forgotten where Pavuvu is," one man said.
"I think God has forgotten where Pavuvu is," came a reply.
"God couldn't forget because he made everything."
"Then I bet he wishes he could forget he made Pavuvu.

Eugene B. Sledge

#5. The other veteran said Listen, mate, everybody gets scared, and anybody says he don't is a damn liar

Eugene B. Sledge

#6. Kick him in the balls before he kicks you in yours

Eugene B. Sledge

#7. Lying in a foxhole sweating out an enemy artillery or mortar barrage or waiting to dash across open ground under machine-gun or artillery fire defied any concept of time.

Eugene B. Sledge

#8. Your soul may belong to Jesus, but your ass belongs to the marines.

Eugene B. Sledge

#9. I am the harvest of man's stupidity. I am the fruit of the holocaust. I prayed like you to survive, but look at me now. It is over for us who are dead, but you must struggle, and will carry the memories all your life. People back home will wonder why you can't forget.

Eugene B. Sledge

#10. I asked God "Why, why, why?" I turned my face away and wished that I were imagining it all. I had tasted the bitterest essence of war, the sight of helpless comrades being slaughtered, and it filled me with disgust.

Eugene B. Sledge

#11. Would the war dehumanize me so that I, too, could "field trip" enemy dead with such nonchalance?

Eugene B. Sledge

#12. I concluded that it was impossible for me to be killed, because God loved me. Then I told myself that God loved us all and that many would die or be ruined physically or mentally or both by the next morning and in the days following.

Eugene B. Sledge

#13. As I crawled out of the abyss of combat and over the rail of the Sea Runner, I realized that compassion for the sufferings of others is a burden to those who have it. As Wilfred Owen's poem "Insensibility" puts it so well, those who feel most of others suffer most in war.

Eugene B. Sledge

#14. As the sun disappeared below the horizon and its glare no longer reflected off a glassy sea, I thought of how beautiful the sunsets always were in the Pacific. They were even more beautiful than over Mobile Bay. Suddenly a thought hit me like a thunderbolt. Would I live to see the sunset tomorrow?

Eugene B. Sledge

#15. Courage meant overcoming fear and doing one's duty in the presence of danger, not being unafraid.

Eugene B. Sledge