Portal:United States Air Force/Quotes
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"If our air forces are never used, they have achieved their finest goal."
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- - General Nathan F. Twining, 31 March 1956
The academy’s long-range mission will be to train generals, not second lieutenants.
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- -- LtGen Hubert R. Harmon, Superintendent, Air Force Academy (Newsweek, 6 June 1955)
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"This business – defending our Nation – is all about trust. The American people place special confidence in us:
- - to do the right thing, even in the face of danger;
- - to keep our Nation safe, even in times of struggle;
- - and win our Nation’s wars, even against a most elusive foe."
- — Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton A. Schwartz, 30 Sept 2008
Schwartz, General Norton A. (September 30, 2008). "The Air Force: fighting today's war" (Purple Heart presentation ceremony, Walter Reed Army Medical Center). Air Force Link. United States Air Force. Retrieved December 15, 2008.
It wasn't the reward that mattered or the recognition you might harvest.
It was your depth of commitment, your quality of service, the product of your devotion -- these were the things that counted in a life. When you gave purely, the honor came in the giving, and that was honor enough.
"Recommitting to our own high standards is the foundation for our success in every mission area, not just our nuclear enterprise. To this end, I charge the Air Force to:
- Continue leaning forward in every respect in support of Joint operations
- Ensure that our core values of Integrity First, Service before Self, and Excellence in All We Do underpin every action, by every Airman, at all times
- Commit to individual and organizational accountability
- Critically examine our internal processes, restore discipline, identify weaknesses, and aggressively solve problems
- Overcome any challenge that impinges on our credibility, readiness, or the trust placed in us by others - Do our mission for the Nation, and do it well "
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- — Secretary of the Air Force Michael B. Donley, June 30, 2008
Donley, Michael B. (June 30, 2008). "Letter to Airman". Senior Leaders Viewpoints. United States Air Force. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.
"Since the Nation's birth, it has been the constitutional duty of our military to ensure national survival, defend lives and property, and promote vital interests at home and abroad. The enduring responsibility of the United States Air Force is to provide strategic deterrence for the Nation and fly, fight and win as an integral part of the Joint Team. Together with our brothers and sisters in arms, we underwrite the national strategy of defending the Homeland and assuring allies, while dissuading, deterring and defeating enemies."
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- — Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton A. Schwartz, 3 Sept 2008
Schwartz, General Norton A. (September 3, 2008). "Fly, Fight and Win!". CSAF's Vector. United States Air Force. Retrieved February 19, 2009.
"I never doubted, not ever, that we would succeed."
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- — Combined Airlift Task Force Commander, Major General William H. Tunner referring to the Berlin Airlift
Grigorian, Gary C., "Major General William Tunner: A Study in Creative and Innovative Leadership During the Berlin Airlift", in McBride, Sharon, The Challenges of Leadership and Command, Air University, p. 57
"Our warriors are no longer limited to the people who fly the airplanes...Our entire force is a warrior force. Being a warrior is not an AFSC (Air Force specialty code),...it's a condition of the heart."
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- — Air Force Chief of Staff, General John P. Jumper
McBride, Sharon (ed.), "Air Force Leadership", The Challenges of Leadership and Command, Air University, p. 1
The Air Force comes in every morning and says, 'Bomb, bomb, bomb' … And then the State Department comes in and says, 'Not now, or not there, or too much, or not at all.'
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- - Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States
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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
— The United States of America Pledge of Allegiance
This B-17 met a head-on attack by three Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighters. The gunners exploded two of them, and the top turret poured a stream of shells into the cockpit of the third. With a dead man at the controls, the fighter screamed in, and at a closing speed of 550 miles per hour smashed head-on into the number-three engine.
The tremendous impact of the crash tore off the propeller. It knocked the heavy bomber completely out of formation as though a giant hand has swatted a fly. The fighter cartwheeled crazily over the B-17.
It cut halfway through the wing, and then sliced a third of the way through the horizontal stabilizer. The top and ball turrets immediately jammed, the radio equipment was smashed to wreckage, and all the instruments "went crazy." Pieces of metal from the exploding, disintegrating Focke Wulf tore through the fuselage, and a German gun barrel buried itself in the wall between the radio room and the bomb bay.
Crews of nearby bombers watched the collision. They saw a tremendous explosion, and the bomber hurtling helplessly out of control, tumbling as she fell. They reported when they returned to base that the Flying Fortress had blown up, and that the crew must be considered dead.
The old Queen hadn't blown up, and the crew was far from dead. The pilots struggled wildly in the cockpit, and somehow between them, managed to bring their careening bomber back under control. The gunners shot down a fourth fighter that had closed in to watch the proceedings.
And then they brought her all the way back to England, and scraped her down for a belly landing on the runway.
Postscript: not a man was injured.
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- - Caidin, Martin (1960). Black Thursday. E. P. Dutton & Co. ISBN 0553267299.
- - Caidin, Martin (1960). Black Thursday. E. P. Dutton & Co. ISBN 0553267299.
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The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.
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- - General Omar Bradley, speech given 11 November 1948
- - General Omar Bradley, speech given 11 November 1948
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When we refused to be forced out of Berlin, we demonstrated to the people of Europe that with their cooperation we would act, and act resolutely, when their freedom was threatened.
— U.S. President Harry S. Truman, remarks on the Berlin Airlift, after the Berlin Blockade was lifted by the Soviets in May 1949.
Our citizenship in the United States is our national character. Our citizenship in any particular state is only our local distinction. By the latter we are known at home, by the former to the world. Our great title is AMERICANS…
Killing Japanese didn't bother me very much at that time... I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have been tried as a war criminal.... Every soldier thinks something of the moral aspects of what he is doing. But all war is immoral and if you let that bother you, you're not a good soldier.
— General Curtis E. LeMay
…They know we own their country. We own their airspace…We dictate the way they live and talk.…
— General William R. Looney III, commenting 30 August 1999 about the bombing of Iraq in the late 1990s, which he directed.
High Flight
- Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
- And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
- Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
- of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
- You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
- High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
- I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
- My eager craft through footless halls of air....
- Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
- I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
- Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
- And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
- The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
