Nathaniel Fick

“VJ had gone to the Naval Academy, where he competed as a powerlifter and developed a distaste for military customs such as…

— Nathaniel Fick

I hurt for my Marines, goodhearted American guys who'd bear these burdens for the rest of their lives. And I mourned for…

— Nathaniel Fick

“You’re quoted as saying, ‘The bad news is, we won’t get much sleep tonight; the good news is, we get to kill…

— Nathaniel Fick

When you are serving volunteer professional military, you take an oath to the Constitution, not to a policy or a president and…

— Nathaniel Fick

“Safety is paramount.” “If safety were paramount,” Whitmer declared, “we’d stay in the barracks and play pickup basketball. Good training is paramount.”

— Nathaniel Fick

People build continuity into their life: Places, friends and goals. We go to work on Monday with plans for Friday night, enroll…

— Nathaniel Fick

My team is the best, the platoon is good, the company is awful, and the battalion is actively trying to kill us.

— Nathaniel Fick

“We learned that indecision is a decision, that inaction has a cost all its own. Good commanders act and create opportunities. Great…

— Nathaniel Fick

I was in Afghanistan and then obviously in Iraq. And I realized that you can't control life. You can do a lot…

— Nathaniel Fick

“Great Marine commanders, like all great warriors, are able to kill that which they love most -- their men.”

— Nathaniel Fick

“You can’t volunteer to go to war and then bitch about getting shot at.”

— Nathaniel Fick

“Your job is to be the hardest motherfucker in your platoon," he said while pointing at me across the desk. "Do that,…

— Nathaniel Fick

Do nothing but be prepared to do anything.

— Nathaniel Fick

“Hardness," I was learning, was the supreme virtue among recon Marines. The greatest compliment one could pay to another was to say…

— Nathaniel Fick