It was a line used in the movie The Right Stuff but the credit at IMDB just says chief scientist. It made me chuckle when I heard it when I saw the movie way back now in 1983.
I seem to remember another line from a movie “The Crossing”. During the planning of the crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Eve to attack the Hessian mercenaries, allies of George III, General Washington asked to have “our Germans” brought in for counsel. These Pennsylvania Germans with their long rifles, some of which were Hessian born, were resolute in their determination to attack the Hessian troops. This victory turned the tide of the Revolutionary war, from a long string of defeats, to a heroic triumph.