Quotes - Duty (page 4)

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Once more, there are two sorts of discipline, distinct in principle although sometimes they may overlap in practice.
The one is born in coercion and sets the soldier outside the ring of homely sentiment which surrounds the ordinary citizen from his cradle to his grave. ... Coercive as the old discipline may be, it by no means despises the moral factor. It tries to make a religion out of something very near and real, yet, at the same time, high, intangible, romantic -- the Regiment! ...
The other sort of discipline aims at raising the work-a-day virtues of the average citizen to a higher power. It depends:
(1) Upon a sense of duty (res publica).
(2) Upon generous emulation (force of example).
(3) Upon military cohesion (esprit de corps).
(4) Upon the fear a soldier has of his own conscience (fear that he may be afraid). - General Ian Hamilton, G.C.B., The Soul and Body of an Army, 1921

We hold the conviction that to salute good Infantry is to; pay tribute to unflinching courage; honor devotion to duty and perfection of discipline that are content only with full attainment of assigned objectives; applaud resourcefulness, skill and stamina that are unsurpassable on the battlefield; salute the men that in every case must take the final and conclusive step to victory. - General Dwight D. Eisenhower

MOS
(Military Occupational Specialty)
SOLDIER

He is a patriot, is highly motivated and has integrity.
He has imagination and initiative.
He has a willing spirit and will never give up.
He has normal human fears but stays and fights.
He willingly endures hardship in war and peace.
He understands his job and his weapons.
He is versatile and can do more than one thing well.
He is a team player and, as such, understands the necessity for discipline.
He promptly and willingly assumes the responsibility of leadership.
He places country before self.

Department of the Army, April 1962, [US Army] Infantry, Vol. 52, No. 5, September-October 1962.

Platoon Leader: "Every man in the squad should listen to his squad leader with the thought in mind that he may have to be the squad leader before the battle is over. - Extracts from Combat Lessons (World War II Combat Reports) and Combat Report from Korea, [US Army] Infantry, Vol. 50, No. 4, August-September 1960.

The duties of a military officer are becoming, year by year, more complex and more difficult to perform. Every progress made in the methods of war brings them more within the domain of science. The art of war has already approached the margin of the exact sciences, and the elements of the problems which war presents for solution are vastly more complex and difficult of exact measurement than those which deal with which any other branch of science has to deal. A few may, possibly, by individual exertion alone, gain a mastery of this great science, but it is only by united and harmonious effort that the many may even approach to that degree of excellence which insures success in war. - Major-General J.M. Schofield, United States Army, from the Inaugural Address to Journal of the Military Service Institute of the United States, January 11, 1879

A Parris Island recruit once asked his drill instructor, "Sergeant, who caries the Flag in battle?"
Came the unhesitating reply, "Son, every Marine carries the flag in battle!" - The Marine Officer's Guide, United State Naval Institute, 1956

A Marine on duty has no friends.
Marine Corps Proverb
- The Marine Officer's Guide, United State Naval Institute, 1956

The Work of the Military Police
"One particular corporal, after five N.C.O.s of his section had been killed in succession, removed the white sleeves from his dead predecessor and, still wearing his S.D. cap and red cap- cover, maintained the post for a further 12 hours until all British troops had passed through. During this time the particular city around him had been reduce to rubble by heavy bombardment, and in order to keep the route open he had to remove burning ammunition lorries from the route, in addition to coping with refugees. He himself was the last to leave, and on his return collected up his traffic signs so that they should not act as pointers to the enemy." - WAR, No. 34; Issued fortnightly by the Army Bureau of Current Affairs, December 26th, 1942

The Standing Orders of the 15th (King's) Hussars, printed in 1910, ... , and refer to an earlier edition dated 1800, from which the following advice to privates was reprinted for the benefit of the modern soldier.
"A good soldier is obedient to his officers, regular in his quarters, attentive to the care and cleanliness of his horse, arms and appointments, and alert and exact in the discharge of every duty. It is an honour and principle, and not compulsion, that should prompt him to an observance of all these articles." - Quoted in The Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. V, No. 21 July-September 1926

At all times and in all seasons of the year, I consider it my duty to go out to meet the enemy, to strike at him, and to maintain decisive operations ... If the word is given to advance, then I do not know what it is to be tired, cold, or hungry. - Field Marshal Alexander Suvorov, 1729-1800

To the Unknown Leader
Whenever we speak and think of the great Captains and set up our military altars to Hannibal and Napoleon and Marlborough and such like, let us add one more altar, "To the Unknown Leader," that is, to the good company, platoon, or section leader who carries forward his men or holds his post, and often falls unknown. It is these who in the end do most to win wars. The British have been a free people and ... this tradition of freedom gives to our junior leaders in war a priceless gift of initiative. - Field-Marshal Lord Wavell

31. The General Officers will take the first opportunity of visiting the Cantonments of each Regiment; will give orders for such guards, or outposts, as they shall find necessary; will order the proper Alarm
post of each Regiment, and of the Brigade if it should have occasion to join; will direct the Commanding Officers to exercise their Battalions, at least once a week: will give orders for an Officer of each Company to visit the Quarters daylie, to see that the Men are Clean, that they Mess regularly, and keep their arms in good order, and that every payday the Officers inspect the arms, accoutrements, ammunition, linning, and camp necessaries; that a Captain be appointed to visit the Regimental Hospital or Infirmary every day, and that the rolls be called every morning and evening in the presence of an Officer, a Report of which is to be Daylie sent to the Commanding Officer and by him to the General Officer of the district; they will likewise order the Articles of War to be read, and Divine Service to be regularly attended to. - Standing Orders for the Army--1755, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. V., 1926

41. Whenever the Men cannot draw (i.e., withdraw a loaded charge from) their pieces they are to be collected together, and are to fire them in presence of an Officer, and not otherwise. - Standing Orders for the Army--1755, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. V., 1926

66. A subaltern is always to go with the men when they go into villages for provisions, straw, wood or water; he is to march them regularly and bring back to Camp in the same order; will be answerable for all disorders the men may commit, and the Commanding Officers are to be responsible that this be regularly and constantly observed. - Standing Orders for the Army--1755, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. V., 1926

91. Recruits may exercise and fore from nine to twelve, except when the army is under orders of being ready to march, and whenever recruits exercise, Officers are to attend. - Standing Orders for the Army-- 1755, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. V., 1926

In the final choice a soldier's pack is not so heavy a burden as a prisoner's chains. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Be convinced that to be happy means to be free and that to be free means to be brave. Therefore, do not take lightly the perils of war. - Thucydides

In no other profession are the penalties for employing untrained personnel so appalling or so irrevocable as in the military. - General Douglas MacAuthur

The mission is primary, followed by taking care of your soldiers. - Gen. Colin Powell

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The ugliest is the man who thinks nothing is worth fighting and dying for and lets men better and braver than himself protect him. - John Stuart Mill, 1859

I am nimmukwallah, as we say in the East; that is, I have ate of the King's salt, and, therefore, I conceive it to be my duty to serve with unhesitating zeal and cheerfulness, when and wherever the King or his government may think proper to employ me. - Wellington, quoted in: Philip Guedalla, The Duke, 1931 (Wordsworth Military Library Edition 1997)

You cannot be disciplined in great things and undisciplined in small things. There is only one sort of discipline - perfect discipline. Discipline is based on:-

Discipline can only be obtained when leaders are as imbued with the sense of their lawful obligations to their men and to their country that they cannot tolerate negligence. - George S Patton

Lieutenant Colonel James Rudder ... about the fighting spirit of his men ... "the person that is not willing to fight and die, if need be, for his country has no right to life." The fact was that Rudder and most senior American soldiers believed that the Japanese and the Germans were tougher--man for man--than their American counterparts. The American civilian was too soft General Patton had issued a warning in 1940: "I'm worried because I'm not sure this country can field a fighting army at this stage in our history. We've pampered and confused our youth. We've talked too much about rights and no enough about duties. Now we've got to try to make them attack and kill. A big percentage of our men won't be worth a goddam to us." - Geoffrey Regan, Fight or Flight, 1996

I think and work with all my power to bring the troops to the right place at the right time; then I have done my duty. As soon as I order them forward into battle, I leave my army in the hands of God. - R. E. Lee

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