I would be interested in what veterans think of your quote. It would explain a lot about my dad.
Marine Corps. I went to Paris Island in 1985. We would chant every night. Ready to fight, Ready to kill, Ready to die, but never will. That about sums up our mind set at the time. We had an agreement that we would not be captured. I was a Reconnaissance Marine. We usually went out in squads of 5, 7 was a big team. Gathering intel, observation posts behind enemy lines, sometimes to blow stuff up, sometimes prisoner grabs, among other stuff, we never believed we would die. My experience was nothing like WWII or Nam. I'm sure theatre and era has a lot to do with it.