Earl Hancock Ellis quotes

“Yes, Marines are down in jungle land and they did kill a man in a war, and a great many people did not know anything about it.”
-- Earl Hancock Ellis

#War Quotes #Marine Quotes #Men Quotes

“All my life I've been aware of the Second World War humming in the background. I was born 10 years after it was finished, and without ever seeing it. It formed my generation and the world we lived in. I played Hurricanes and Spitfires in the playground, and war films still form the basis of all my moral philosophy. All the men I've ever got to my feet for or called sir had been in the war.”

“Father was an atheist; he had even joined the Skeleton Army - a club of men who went about in masks or black faces, with ribald placards and a brass band, to make war upon the Salvation Army.”

“The problem after a war is with the victor. He thinks he has just proved that war and violence pay. Who will now teach him a lesson?”

Source : A. J. Muste's statement of 1941, as quoted in Howard Zinn "A People's History" (p. 416), 1980, and later quoted in Howard Zinn "The Twentieth Century: A People's History" (p. 159), May 9, 1984.

“Well, fancy giving money to the Government! Might as well have put it down the drain. Fancy giving money to the Government! Nobody will see the stuff again. Well, they've not idea what money's for- Ten to one they'll start another war. I've heard a lot of silly things, but, Lor'! Fancy giving money to the Government!”

“Due to the oath I swore to the constitution when I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, by virtue of the universal human right to self defense, in accordance with the Supreme Court case, D.C. vs. Heller, which affirmed that the statutes under which I am being charged are unconstitutional and thus null and void, and on behalf of all freedom loving Americans, I plead not guilty.”

“My skin prickled and I looked back at the ocean. None of us ask for the things we inherit; they are thrust upon us, willy-nilly. Like The Marine, I suddenly understood. Mom and I weren't trespassing. This house was ours. This view was ours. And that seemed as absurd and unreal as the stories Sailor Hat had spun for me on the ferry.”

“Every Marine is, first and foremost, a rifleman. All other conditions are secondary.”

“I'm a conservative because I believe in peace - real peace, not just the peace of mind. I'm a conservative because we understand that real peace comes from the Marine Corps, not the Peace Corps.”

“I am asking you all not to be nettled with me for not answering your letter in spanish I read spanish very well but I don't write it. The image of Stanley Dixon sitting and pondering is one of the rewards of sea turtle research, and a thing I shall often sit and ponder.”

Source : Archie Fairly Carr (1967). “So Excellent a Fishe: A Natural History of Sea Turtles”

“I came to my first Colts training camp in July of 1950, and it was murder, absolute murder. We had a coach named Clem Crow who must have been nuts. You got to remember that I'd been a Marine, had gone through basic training and spent 26 months in the Pacific during WWII, but the Marine drill instructors had nothing on Clem.”