Patton on Profanity and Prayer (Part One - Profanity)
Posted on 02/09/2016 7:37:38 AM PST by xzins
Part One is exactly as advertised. If you are going to be offended by Profanity go read something else. There, I've done my part.
Profanity serves a purpose in the military. General Patton explained; "When I want my men to remember something important, to really make it stick, I give it to them double dirty. It may not sound nice to some bunch of little old ladies at an afternoon tea party, but it helps my soldiers to remember. You can't run an Army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity. An Army without profanity couldn't fight it's way out of a piss-soaked paper bag."
"Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American."
"Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, "Fixing the wire, Sir". I asked, "Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?" He answered, "Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed". I asked, "Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?" And he answered, "No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!" Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds". ...snip....
And this: Roosevelt once described King as a man who “shaves every morning with a blow torch.”
Great book: “The Admirals” and it discusses the lives of Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King. Absolutely a brilliantly informative and entertaining read.
I gave it five stars.
I’m sure you have read it, but Eugene Sledge’s take on profanity in boot camp in his book “With The Old Breed on Peleliu”.
There were men who were profoundly shocked by it, hadn’t been exposed to that level of extreme and omnipresent profanity in their entire lives.
I know when I got out of boot camp and went home for Thanksgiving, I said the “F” word just as loud and naturally in a story I was telling to the entire family as if I had been having a beer with my best friend. I had no idea I had even said it, until I looked all around the table at the twenty or so people we had sitting there from Grandpa down to some very young relatives and saw they were just staring at me with gaping mouths.
In my life, I had never, ever heard my father say that word until he was in his seventies, and I remember how shocked I felt to hear it come out of his mouth (He was relaying something someone else had said!)
Just got it!
My interest in naval warfare piqued after reading Homer_Simpson’s daily WWII accounts.
Another excellent book you might like, one of the best ever written on the subject (of surface warfare during the Solomon Islands Campaign) is: “Neptune’s Inferno” by James D. Hornfischer.
It is a phase of the war that is often overlooked with all the island campaigns (for good reason) most people don’t have any conception of the ferocity and sheer butchery that took place in and on the waters around the Solomon Islands from August to December 1942. Around 1000 Marines and Soldiers were KIA in this time frame, but around 4000 ship-based personnel, mostly Navy, were killed.
The carnage is astonishing, and one most people don’t know much about. It was a phase of the war when the Japanese Navy and the US Navy did have a degree of parity, and in more than a few cases, the advantage in tactics and equipment went decisively to the Japanese. But not all...there is extensive discussion of radar technology, how it was in its shipboard infancy (first use of radar directed gunfire) and how we had to learn how best to use it (and how the Japanese Navy did NOT learn how best to use it)
I just looked on Amazon, and most people seem to be giving it five stars. I certainly did...
Patton on Profanity and Prayer (Part One - Profanity)
Excellent post.
I’m in the middle of this one now. A lot of great insights!
Glad you like it, I found it fascinating. Nimitz sounds like he was a hell of a guy, a real stand-up officer.
Glad you liked it, ohioman...fascinating historical figures, aren’t they?
Women right to vote —> more civil politics —> socialism
You can tell when sailors need some shore time. The longer at sea the more colorful the language becomes. Sailors create whole sentences composed almost entirely of curse words with a few nouns thrown in. It so bad sometimes curse words get spit into two parts and other curse words are inserted between.
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