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Memorable Quotes

"No matter where you travel, when you meet a guy who's been...
There's an instant kind of friendship 'cause we're brothers of the 'phin."

 - Robert Reed, G.W. Carver (SSBN-656)

Quote

"There is a touch of the pirate about every man who wears the dolphins badge."

Commander Jeff Tall RN

-- submitted by Pete (Pedro) Dickinson, Secretary, Merseyside Branch, Submariners Association, Liverpool, England

"Get down, get down!"

The Navigator, LDCR Berasconi, was the OD, I was the Diving Officer. We were on a transit back from San Diego to Pearl with five Spruance Class Destroyers, all using active Sonar on us. We were on our way up to PD for our Comm period; I was calling out my depths on the way up.

All of a sudden, about 6 to 8 feet below order depth the NAV yells out “Get Down, Get Down”. I did not understand what he want me to do as I was below order depth; was I supposed to start bogging down?

Then I hear the handles on the scope go up, the scope comes down, the Nav yells out “Emergency Deep” with his eye bugging out of his head.

“I have always wanted to know what it look like to see two out of three Hull Numbers in Low Power” This is what Mr. Berasconi said to me after we had gone deep after the above.

-- submitted by Dan Craw ETC(SS) USN Ret, USS Bremerton SSN698 81-84

"I don't know why we have to be down here on this hold down exercise(at the 60th hour). Hell, I went through this on the Thresher (SS 200) during WW ll with a Nip Sea Going Tug hooked onto our screw guards, trying to lift our butts out of the water. They didn't get us then, and these Tin Cans (ours) ain't going to get us now."

"Hambone" Hamilton SD1 (SS).

SD1 (SS) "Hambone" (who made 13 war patrols on USS Remora, SS-487) said the above in July 1957 during a hold down exercise off Kobe Japan. As soon as he said this, he was called to the Conn by the Skipper. Hambone turned to us as he left the Fwd Torpedo room, and remarked, "Looks like Captain Bucknell needs my military expertise" leaving the FTR in a hilarious roar. Hambone was, and will always be, my HERO.

-- submitted by Ted Armstrong STSC (SS), USN Ret

"Suction on After Trim, Sea venting."

USS Sea Owl (SS-405) Auxiliaryman Mike Aarons, at the air manifold, to a Sub School trainee Diving Officer following his command to pump after trim to sea.

-- submitted by Theron (Dave) Davis, USN-Ret.

"They weren't just hull numbers, they were our home addresses. Now the old neighborhood is torn down and gone and all that is left are memories."

-- submitted by Dick Murphy,USS Tiru SS 416

"Submarine life most of the time is hours and hours of boredom with intermittent terror thrown in to keep you on your toes!"

--  submitted by Paul "PEP" Perris

"Permission to lower the scope!"

Leaving Pearl Harbor, summer of 1972, enroute to WestPac, we had a midshipman on board.  While at periscope depth and the mishipman manning the scope, he yelled out "permission to lower the scope", ducked, then the perscope hit a log.

--  submitted by Pete Patterson, USS Barbel SS-580

"Do or do not.  There is no try."

Yoda (As seen in the 1999 Navy Leadership Planning Guide Calendar book.)

--  submitted by CWO2 Jim Chianese

"Life is not fair, life was not meant to be fair. We in the submarine service are fortunate to learn this fact early in life, that life is not fair.."

STS1(SS) Danny A. Alexander, USS HADDO (SSN 604) WESTPAC 1979

-- submitted by DE Wright CWO4

"It's hard sometimes, but as long as we remember them around the campfire, they will live forever."

Taken from a BBS post - the complete text is: I am leaving for the Florida Gulf. I have my Monte Cristo cigar, some domestic Riesling, cheese and fruit. Will have an extra place set at supper tonight and tomorrow. Any of your ghosts that want to attend are welcome to take the seat. Just make sure they are a VETERAN, thats all I ask. Flounder, reds and trout are all biting. We should have a good time. I hope I'll have only good memories. It's hard sometimes, but as long as we remember them around the campfire, they will live forever.

Walt Specht MM1(SS), nearing Veteran's Day, 2005

"Some ships are designed to sink… others require our assistance."

I’m not sure if we were the first submariners to come up with this quote, but it was the theme we had printed on t-shirts (along with a surface ship in the crosshairs of a periscope) for the first ever (Mediterranean) deployment of the “Mighty Monty” – USS Montpelier (SSN 765).

Nathan Zelk, former RM2(SS) USS Montpelier (SSN 765) August ’93 – October ‘97

"SHEESH!, their planesmen are worse than ours! I just saw their whole f***in' screw come out of the water!"

CO on Flasher at the scope while doing maneuvers with Pintado, both at periscope depth.  The entire control room broke up. 
-- submitted by Gene Brockingham ETCS(SS) Ret.

"Diving Officer, I believe we are airborne"

OOD, looking out the periscope after a broach.
-- submitted by Gene Brockingham ETCS(SS) Ret.

"They also serve those who only stand and wait"

-- Eleanor Rickover, ship's sponsor, at the Launching of the USS Hyman G Rickover

As a member of the launching and commissioning crew of the Hyman G Rickover (SSN709), I did not grasp the full meaning back then. But now since, I have retired from the Submarine Service and my own son's go to sea. I stand on a pier and watch and wait for thier return, only now do full comprehend the depth of the quote and the dedication of those who waited for me. -- submitted by Steven H. Landers FTCS(SS) (Ret.)

When I was on the Roosevelt, SSBN 600 Gold, we had a young SN named Harry Trask. While transiting out of Holy Loch, or possibly Charleston after a missile loadout, Trask was the lookout on the bridge with the OOD, LCDR G. Cunningham. As part of his duties as OOD Cunnihgham was asking Trask various questions related to his lookout duties. When he asked what Trask would do if he (Cunningham) fell overboard on the starboard side Trask responded without batting an eye:

"Control - Bridge; this is Trask; I have the deck and the Conn"

He was immediately relieved of his lookout duties and became an instant hero to the crew. This happened, if I remember correctly, in 1969.

Submitted by Fred "Doc" Gardner HM1(SS) / FMF

Overheard in the Control Room of USS Sea Robin SS-407 after the Chief of the Watch had began lowering the snorkel mast before the main snorkel induction valve was closed...

"Captain, we have flooded the main induction...".

Reply from the CONN (CO).."Don't tell ME your problems..."

Submitted by Paul Roggemann ET2(SS) 63-67

"Of all the branches of men in the forces there is none which shows more devotion and faces grimmer perils than the submariners." 

Sir Winston Churchill

Submitted by ETCS(SS) Donald T Ennis USN (retired)

"To the most exalted son of heaven. May this elevate you a little higher"

Inscribed on a torpedo warhead in GURNARD'S forward torpedo room. This was GURNARD'S third war patrol (East China Sea). She was out of Pearl Harbor 6 September 1943. The patrol ended 28 October 1943.

Submitted by Glenn Milhorn

"Here is $5.00 for cigarettes and soap... your 'stuff' is at home!"

Had a buddy that wrote his wife from Yokosuka asking her to send him $25.00 so he could buy "cigarettes and soap and stuff." Enclosed was her next letter with the response above...

Submitted by Ken "Pig" Henry, on a WestPac, way back when...

"The only good Marine is a SUB-marine!"

Submitted by EN1-SS Steve D. Gardella.

"Without courage, you might as well not be in it. You’ve got to have courage--moral courage, physical courage--and honor. Honor means telling the truth even when it might not be to your advantage"

Retired Capt. Charles W. Rush Jr. (85), Navy Cross recipient, when asked to give advice to Chiefs and Junior Officers in today's submarine service.

"Never Give In, Battle Cry:

Take her fast,
> Take her deep,
> Take her where the fishes sleep..
Damn the depth,
Damn the pressure,
> Take her down just like the Thresher... "

From the Olympia SSN 717 book of poems. Author unknown
Submitted by Henry Arevalo

"The efficiency of the propellor remains constant from the time it is buttoned on to the end of the shaft until the last sad day when the ship is finally cast on the scrap heap."

Written in a 1927 issue of the RAN journal, 'Spindrift..

"I can assure you that they went down fighting and that their brothers who survived them took a grim toll of our savage enemy to avenge their deaths."

Admiral Charles.A. Lockwood, USN.

"We shall never forget that it was our submarines that held the lines against the enemy while our fleets replaced losses and repaired wounds."

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, USN.

"Because I was barfing in a bag at the time, Sir"

Lt. Brown answered when the CO asked why the RO answered an order to maneuvering. We were on the surface heading into Norway taking 37 degree rolls.

Submitted by Bill Warnick ex IC2/SS
USS L. Mendel Rivers SSN 686   1981 - 84

"Think of it this way: Where can you go to sea in the most AWESOME piece of equipment ever built, have great chow, outstanding shipmates and piss off Ivan AND GET *PAID* FOR IT?"

MM1(SS) Dristiliaris (not sure of spelling) (An Instructor I had at SUBSCOL)

Submitted by Patrick M. Reilly, Choteau, MT 

"Target? Damned if I can see the horizon!"

On a very dark night while approaching a "sampan", the officer of the deck asked TM Kelly one of the gun crew,"can you see the target".  Kelly replied, "target, damned if  can see the horizon".    (6th patrol, April 1944)

Submitted by Mike Walsh, U.S.S. Peto (SS265)

"Even the bloody queen don't rate cocoa!"

Exclaimed by a young British submariner riding Crevalle (SS 291) when offered a cup of cocoa by the crew

Submitted by Warren "Moose" Grossetta

"I have passed by more lighthouses submerged than you have light poles on shore."
Paul Ferris RM2(SS) USS Blackfish & Greenfish
"Seeing him is like seeing a UFO, you don't see 'em often, and when you do, no one believes you."
The answer given when MMC(SS) Tidwell asked MMFN(SU) Shader if he had seen MMFN(SU) Dye. USS City Of Corpus Christie (SSN 705) April, 1999 - Andrew Shader
"Helm, bridge...what are you doing 60 degrees off course?"
"Bridge, helm...coming back from 90 degrees, sir."
Roger Forgit, USS Tigrone AGSS-419
"Again I ask, who really are our Hero’s? They are the men who have, since the first day of our great country, left their families and friends and gone to war asking for nothing and giving all."
Gary Walker
"Here we go again, break out the deck chairs and the beer I think were going to be here awhile..."
After missing the fourth attempt at mooring at one of the slips at the New London Sub Base, the above comment was heard over the sound powered phones on the Maneuvering Watch aboard the USS Sea Robin SS407 as once again it backed out into the channel.

Harold Doherty FTG3 (SS)

"I can't say anything bad about Doc Barboza; he cut my hair before I went ashore... and he cured my 'cold' when I came back."
David Stevens, MM2(SS)
USS Archerfish (AGSS-311)

Submitted by Ken "Pig" Henry
"DO I OWN THAT. . . ???"

Spoken by the Navigator on board the USS Nevada, SSBN 733(B) just after the hour of Sunrise during a transit home through the Straits of Juan De Fuca after a patrol where EVERYTHING broke at least once. Once Sunrise was reported, the Primary Plotter broke in with the song lines “Morning has Broken. . . “ When the Navigator heard those words he spun around on his heels and frantically said. . .”morning has broken. . .??? Do I own that?”

Maybe you wouldahadda been there. . . .but it was very funny at the time.

Submitted by Scott J. Bryan, ETC(SS)
USS Alabama, SSBN 731(B)
Bangor, Wa.

"OOOOOHHHH!!!! [--2-3 second pause--], jellyfish."
Spoken on the way to PD, about 10-20 feet before the scope cleared the water, the OOD, LT Magendanz, said the above. During that 2-3 second pause we all knew that we should be executing an emergency deep (and the OOHHH!! was oh-so-emphatic), but we also knew the guy on the scope, so we violated standing orders and waited. We were glad we did.

--Submitted by Rob Straight
"Ashes to ashes, dust unto dust,
it may not run, but shine it must,
it may not work, but it will not rust."
An overheard Chief's response to the question, "why do we have to clean all the time?"

--Submitted by Josiah Ibbotson
"Gentlemen, in view of this morning's adventure…….I am compelled to remind you that our objective is to observe their Anti-Submarine Warfare Exercise……..not participate in it!"
Rear Admiral (Ret) Jerry Holland, original CO USS Pintado SSN 672

--Submitted by Dave Linker EM1(SS) Plankowner

(Followup: That was on our first Westpac. The Eng had the deck and was taking a look thru the observation 'scope in state 2 seas when all of a sudden the water got smooth as glass all around the scope. It finally dawned on him to look up and sure enough, there was a Rusky Helicopter lowering a sonar buoy right on top of us! We went Emergency Deep and hauled ass out of there. The Old Man called a meeting of all Officers, Chiefs and 1st Class in the Crew's Mess, walked in, it got real quiet, That was all he said and turned around and walked back out! We were all a lot more careful after that. I think Holland is still on the Submarine League Board of Directors. He was a great CO. - Dave)
"Come again Rube!"
A Jap destroyer started a depth charge attack on the Gurnard, SS254 by laying a pattern of six depth charges, two at a time. After the first two exploded, one brave sailor shouted, "Come again Rube!" After the next two exploded, he had nothing more to say for quite a long time.
-- Frank DiSabatino
"F*$% the Depth, F*$% the Pressure,
Take Us Down, Beside the Thresher.”

This is a chant that I heard quoted many times during sea trials on an SSN in the eighties.
-- submitted by Larry Yuengel
"Battery acid is kinda tangy but it takes the skin off your lip”

ETSN/SU shoe after his first trip into the battery well.
-- submitted by Robert Shoemaker
"When you shoot at a destroyer and miss, it's like hit'in a wildcat in the ass with a banjo”

Chief Officer Steward Dogan on the USS Gurnard during WWII
-- submitted by Glenn Milhorn
"It's a hard fight with a short stick”

Chief Officer Steward Dogan on the USS Gurnard during WWII - said when the going got rough.
-- submitted by Glenn Milhorn
"Damn, we're going to bankrupt these Sonovabitches”

It was 6 May 1944 Gurnard attacked a convoy headed south in the Celebes Sea ,sinking three large Marus and damaged a fourth. The escorts came down on their attacker with a vengeance. Delbert Ryder was sitting at a mess table counting the depth charges . He asked me, "What does a depth charge cost?" Making a wild guess I told , "About $600 dollars."  His remark,"Damn we're going to bankrupt these SOBs".
-- submitted by Glenn Milhorn
"Remember to keep a fox tail handy and your drain tubs clear.”

Found this in the back of one old Piping Tab given to me by Don Gotta (Popeye Don). 
-- Andrew "Papa Rose" Rose, YNC(SS), Hammerhead and Henry Clay.
"Submariners are a bunch of intelligent misfits that somehow seem to get along, understand each other and work well together.”

-- submitted by Red Hanley who overheard a skimmer officer say this while talking to a non-navy type
"You call this bad? I'll tell you what bad is....Bad is passing test depth at 80 feet per second with a thirty degree down bubble. Compared to that, this is a walk in the park.”

Said by a sub vet said to his group when faced with a potential engineering disaster in his department. The group rallied and overcame the problem.
-- Carlo Ciliberti, Veteran of the USS Skipjack (SS(N)585), Author of "The Next Best Thing."
"He is the Submarine Sailor who served in silence, but in his silence, has heard the laughter of future generations.”

- submitted by Glenn Harris ET1-SS
"The stupid shall be punished.”

MMCM/SS Tommy Connel (sp?) one the greatest to ever be called "chief of the whole damn Boat"
- submitted by Erran Muenz, FTB1/SS USS Tennessee
"You want to know how noisy the Russian Foxtrots were?”

Take this rendition: SSN departs Norfolk, passes the curve, and submerges. Sonar does its first submerged sweep, reports 'Conn, Sonar, contact bearing 090 degrees, designate Sierra One, Russian Foxtrot Diesel Submarine, just exiting the Straights of Gibraltar.' "
-- Dave Goodson- COB SS(B) 39 Cobra, Pier 48, Seattle
"A million dollar house, and the roof leaks...”

-- a sub sailor experiencing (aggravating but not unusual) hull leaks on a dive.
"The Navy is not a job, it's not a career. It's a way of life.”

-- MMCM (SS) "Grump" Barrie
"...The Rattlesnake is found in no other quarter of the world besides America. She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: she is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage... She never wounds 'till she has generously given notice, given to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her. However, once aroused and provoked to attack, she is LETHAL.”

In December, 1775, an American colonist (believed by many scholars to be Benjamin Franklin), noticed the increasing use of a symbol throughout the colonies, stamped onto barrels and other items, depicting a coiled rattlesnake with the words, "Don't tread on me" written below the snake.

And he wondered how the symbol of a rattlesnake could be a symbol of the American desire for freedom? He wrote the following words, after giving it some thought. Words which are just as relevant now, in the light of Sept. 11th, as they were back in 1775.
-- submitted by Ric Hedman

"Put me in coach, I'm still ready to play!”

Maurice Wyman WW II sub vet, aged 75. Served on Blackfish, USS Cole DE 641, and KeysDD787 in reference to the 09-11-01 terrorist attacks on the US.
-- submitted by his friend, Ron Pedron
"Executive Mansion, Washington, November 21, 1864.

Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts:

Dear Madam:

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully,

Abraham Lincoln.”

"To the Soviets, American submariners were more than an enemy; they were ever present pests. To other Americans, they were simply the anonymous men of the Silent Service”

Sherry Sontag  -- submitted by John Dale
"Will let them go by . . . they are only heavy cruisers!”

USS Dace Captain Claggett after viewing what appeared to be a full task force, and cruisers, with an apparent battleship following behind the cruisers.

-- submitted by Dave "Grog" Carpenter (more info)

"Too much ship to throw away for one small hole.”

Commander Johnny Hyde upon deciding to not scuttle USS Bergall after a 5" enemy shell ripped a 5 foot hole in her pressure hull just above the waterline, 2,000 miles from home on her second war patrol, Dec. 15, 1944.
-- submitted by Mike Brood
"Another Running Gun battle.....Destroyer Gunning, Wahoo Running”

Wahoo (SS-238) after hitting a convoy, now out of fish, and heading for the barn......
-- submitted by Larry "TorskDoc" Derouin
"Take her down!”

Howard Gilmore, Captain of USS Growler, badly wounded, ordering her down without him to save the boat.
-- submitted by John Clear
"It was an E-ticket ride!”

MM2(SS) Galen O. Steck describing the feeling during the first-ever emergency ballast blow from test depth, made by the U.S.S. Benjamin Franklin (SSBN-640). Galen reported aboard during new construction in 1964, as an MM2(SS), and left in 1971 as ENC(SS), COB.
-- submitted by Ken "Pig" Henry
"Tenacity Dick, stay with the bastard till he's on the bottom.”

Mush Morton to Dick O'Kane.
-- submitted by Dan Giles.
"Fish don't fart metal !!”

A quote of CDR John Fisher on board the USS Ray. Upon seeing a transient on the sonar repeater in control he confronted the Sonar Supervisor (who claimed it was biologics) and offered this beauty.
-- submitted by Ross Leshikar
"Submarine life is not a service, but a religion”

Igor Britanov, Captain of the K-219:
From a plaque reportedly hung in the CCP of the Soviet Yankee class ballistic missile submarine scuttled by her CO in October 1986 after a devastating missile explosion and fire in order to save his crew from having to re-board the boat without adequate life support equipment (OBA canisters) as they were ordered to do by Moscow. In doing so, Britanov almost lost his life, but saved the remaining members of his crew.
-- from the book, "Hostile Waters." page 19.
"These dolphins, once you pin them on your chest, leave deep marks, right over your heart, long after the uniforms have been put away.”

Bud F. Turner ex-MT2(SS)
U.S.S. Stonewall Jackson SSBN634 Gold, Plankowner
"Submariners are a special brotherhood, either all come to the surface or no one does. On a submarine, the phrase all for one and one for all is not just a slogan, but reality.”

-- VADM Rudolf Golosov of the Russian Navy
"I don't know why they call it 'eternal patrol', rather than 'eternal rest camp'?  I was never afraid in rest camp.”

Howard "Shorty" Evans - USS Queenfish SS 393
- submitted by: Harry E. Hall
"If ya kill 'em, they don't learn nothin!”

-- Anonymous LCPO
"I saw the submariners, the way they stood aloof and silent, watching their pigboat with loving eyes. They are alone in the Navy. I admired the PT boys. And I often wondered how the aviators had the courage to go out day after day and I forgave their boasting. But the submariners! In the entire fleet they stand apart!”

James Michener
Tales of The South Pacific
"Like the destroyer, the submarine has created its own type of officer and man with language and traditions apart from the rest of the service, and yet at the heart unchangingly of the Service”

Rudyard Kipling
The Fringes of the Fleet, 1915
"The North Atlantic is a cruel and unforgiving body of water”

-- MMCM/SS Thomas Barnhart, COB of the USS City of Corpus Christi prior to sea trials after a DMP. (DMP = Depot Modernization Period, mini overhaul)
"I believe it is the duty of every man to act as though the fate of the world depends on them. Surely no one man can do it all. But, one man CAN make a difference.”

-- Adm. H.G. Rickover
"...without a decisive naval force, we can do nothing definitive and with it, everything honorable and glorious.”

-- George Washington, November 15, 1781
"Don't give up the ship!”

-- Capt James Lawrence, June 1, 1813
"...uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

-- Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, March 17, 1945
"Any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile... can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction, I served in the United States Navy.”

-- President J. F. Kennedy, August 1, 1963 to the US Naval Academy graduating class.
"Any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile... can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction, I served in the United States Navy.”

-- President J. F. Kennedy, August 1, 1963 to the US Naval Academy graduating class.
"No thought of flight, none of retreat, no unbecoming deed that argued fear; each on himself relied, as only in his arm the moment of victory.”

-- Milton: Paradise Lost
"No one has done more to prevent conflict - no one has made a greater sacrifice for the cause for Peace - than you, America's proud missile submarine family. You stand tall among our heroes of the Cold War.”

-- General Colin Powell
"This is a hard and dirty war, but when it's over, nothing will ever be too difficult again.”

Lloyd McKenzie, in a letter home to his family

Lloyd Charles McKenzie, TM1, USN was a Submariner's-Submariner. Born in Toronto CANADA, he joined the US NAVY in 1932 serving aboard the USS STEWART, DD-224, on the Yantze River Patrol in the Asiatic Fleet. He was a witness to the Japanese invasion of China. He graduated third in his class from the U.S. NAVY's Submarine School, in New London, CT in May 1940. He would become a member of the Commissioning Crew of USS TRITON, SS-201, and would serve aboard her for all six of TRITON's war patrols against the Japanese Empire. Records show that TRITON would sink 19 Japanese vessels, including a Japanese Navy submarine, the I-164, and the destroyer Nenohi. TRITON would damage 7 additional Japanese vessels before being lost in a battle with three Japanese destroyers on March 15, 1943 in the Caroline Basin.

Visit Lloyd's website at: http://www.erols.com/tritnmia/

-- submitted by Lorie Allen

You know, some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading.

Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and women in the Uniformed Services do what they do for a living.

Senator Metzenbaum to Senator Glenn:
"How can you run for Senate when you've never held a 'real job'?"

Senator Glenn:
"I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions.  I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook; it was my Life on the line. It was not a 9 to 5 job where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank.

I ask you to go with me, as I went the other day, to a Veterans Hospital and look those men with their mangled bodies in the eye and tell them they didn't hold a job.

You go with me to the space program and go as I have gone to the widows and orphans of Ed White and Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee, and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their dad didn't hold a job.

You go with me on Memorial Day coming up, and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags, and you stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell me that those people didn't have a job.

I'll tell you, Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there were some men-SOME MEN-who held a job. And they required a dedication to purpose and a love of country and a dedication to duty that was more important than life itself. And their self-sacrifice is what made this country possible.

I HAVE HELD A JOB, HOWARD! What about you?"

- submitted by Skip Bauman

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