July 2011 - Navy
By LCDR Steven Rogers
The United States Navy
is rich with tradition
and filled with historical
lessons which have
inspired officers and enlisted
personnel since its creation.
The following is a summary of
famous quotes from numerous
naval officers throughout history.
Enjoy, be inspired, and be
proud that YOU are part of this
great Navy:
“I have not yet begun to
fight!”––Captain John Paul Jones.
“It follows than as certain as
that night succeeds the day,
that without a decisive naval
force we can do nothing definitive,
and with it, everything
honorable and glorious.”––
President George Washington.
“Don’t give up the ship!”
––Captain James Lawrence, 1813.
“We have met the enemy and they are
ours...”–– Oliver Hazard Perry.
“Damn the torpedoes; Full speed
ahead!”––Admiral David Glasgow Farragut,
1801-1870.
“You may fire when you are ready,
Gridley.”––Commodore George Dewey,
1 May 1898.
“A good Navy is not a provocation to
war. It is the surest guaranty of peace.”––
President Theodore Roosevelt, 2 Dec. 1902.
“A powerful Navy we have always
regarded as our proper and natural means
of defense; and it has always been of
defense that we have thought, never of
aggression or of conquest. But who shall
tell us now what sort of Navy to build?
We shall take leave to be strong upon the
seas, in the future as in the past; and there
will be no thought of offense or provocation
in that. Our ships are our natural
bulwarks.” ––President Woodrow Wilson,
8 Dec. 1914.
“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!”––
Lieutenant Howell Maurice
Forgy, USN.
“Sighted Sub; Sank
Same.”––Enlisted pilot, AMM
1/C Donald Francis Mason,
28 Jan. 1942.
“Take her down!”––
Commander Howard Walter
Gilmore, Feb. 1943.
“The battle of Iwo Island
[Jima] has been won. The
United States Marines, by
their individual and collective
courage, have conquered a
base which is as necessary to
us in our continuing forward
movement toward final victory
as it was vital to the enemy in
staving off ultimate defeat....
Among the Americans who
served on Iwo Island, uncommon
valor was a common
virtue.”––Fleet Admiral Chester
W. Nimitz, 17 Mar. 1945.
“For in this modern world, the instruments
of warfare are not solely for waging
war. Far more importantly, they are the
means for controlling peace. Naval officers
must therefore understand not only how
to fight a war, but how to use the tremendous
power which they operate to sustain
a world of liberty and justice, without
unleashing the powerful instruments of
destruction and chaos that they have at
their command.”–– Admiral Arleigh Burke,
outgoing CNO, 1 Aug. 1961.
“The Navy has both a tradition and a
future—and we look with pride and
confidence in both directions.”––Admiral
George Anderson, incoming CNO, 1 Aug.
1961.
“I can imagine no more rewarding
a career. And any man who may be
asked in this century what he did to
make his life worthwhile, I think can
respond with a good deal of pride and
satisfaction: ‘I served in the United
States Navy.’”–– President John F.
Kennedy, 1 Aug. 1963.
God Bless America and the United States
Navy on this fourth of July 2011.