Military sayings and speeches

Military sayings and speeches, or excerpts from speeches, are ideal for retirement parties or toasts. Perhaps there are so many quotable military sayings because officers are always giving speeches. Also, there is something about military service that seems to create a dry sense of humor that reveals itself in most veterans through their clever quips.

Below are some sayings and links to speeches that will help anyone planning a military retirement party.

Land of the free because of the brave
-- Bumper sticker

Peace is our Profession
-- Air Force saying

Never was so much owed by so many to so few
-- Winston Churchill.

Better to fight for something than live for nothing."
-- George S. Patton.

The long gray line has never failed us.
Were you to do so, a million ghosts
in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray,
would rise from their white crosses,
thundering those magic words:
Duty, Honor, Country.
-- General Douglas MacArthur’s farewell speech at West Point

At Iowa Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.
-- Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, U.S. Navy

This flag may fade but these colors don't run.
-- Charles M. Province

A poem about
how those in service
are revered during
times of danger and
forgotten during
times of peace:

The danger passed, and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted."
"It's Tommy this, and Tommy that,
And chuck him out the brute,
But it's 'Savior of his Country,'
When the guns begin to shoot!

Our God and soldier we alike adore.
At the brink of danger; not before;
After deliverance, both alike requited.
Our God's forgotten, and our soldiers slighted.
---Francis Quarles, 16th Century English poet

I never think of a Marine but what I think of a man
who wants to do more, not less;
a man you have to hold back, not shove.
-- President Lyndon B. Johnson

The Marines have landed and the situation is well in hand.
-- Richard Harding Davis

And they live tradition; the United States Marine
bears upon his shoulders the nation’s past and
the nation’s hopes for the future.
-- Hanson W. Baldwin

The Marines will never disappoint
the expectations of their country – never!
-- Captain C.W. Morgan, U.S. Navy

I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world.
-- General Douglas MacArthur

Old Soldiers Never Die...

Old soldiers never die; they just fade away
The most famous quote from General Douglas MacArthur's ending to his retirement speech
before Congress. Most people do not realize that the phrase originally came from
an old Army ballad.

Below are the lyrics:
Old Soldiers Never Die

There is an old cookhouse, far far away
Where we get pork and beans, three times a day.
Beefsteak we never see, damn-all sugar for our tea
And we are gradually fading away.

Old soldiers never die,
Never die, never die,
Old soldiers never die
They just fade away.

Privates they love their beer, 'most every day.
Corporals, they love their stripes, that's what they say.
Sergeants they love to drill.
Guess them bastards always will
So we drill and drill
until we fade away.
Source: wiki.answers.com

Listen to a clip by Gene Autry of this ballad

Military retirement ceremonies

Military retirement toasts

Funny military sayings

Retirement speeches

Tributes

When you are the retiree

Teacher retirements

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