Aviators From The United States

"The changing seasons of the Midwest – the intense heat in summer, bitter cold in winter, and unsurpassable beauty and invigorating weather of fall and spring – is what makes it an interesting place to live. Only robust and virile people can live in such a climate and enjoy it."

"Rightly or wrongly, football is very definitely tied up with the status of a university. The majority of people who go to college...they don’t get that wider horizon or that better mental equilibrium. But they do get the opportunity. I think the same thing is true about football. While possibly the majority of boys don’t get those subjective values that I mentioned, certainly the opportunity is there, and I think the values they do get are perhaps more intensely brought out than they are in an educational system itself. As far as any activities I have been connected with are concerned, football has given me the opportunity to round out my philosophy and to change my thinking process more than any other activity with which I have been connected."

"It will be a long and bitter road to victory, but victory there will be, and with it the U.S. will have gained the world prestige she long ago should have earned."

"Some day I would like to meet you as a fellow senator or representative in Washington, D.C. Whether that will ever be my lot none can now say. But for those who have the rightful desire and expectation, a way is usually opened. Let us hope that you and I, and many, many others like us, will be enabled someday, somewhere, somehow to contribute in some small way to the peace and progress of this world. There is nothing wrong with dreams provided foundations are put under them."

"I share with you an innate desire to be of public service to this country. It is the lot of our generation to serve as military men first, and then, with an idealism undaunted to enlist with as much zeal to form a lasting peace. All will come right, our cause is just and righteous. This country will not lose."

"Don't do the right thing looking for a reward, because it might not come."

"What a great man. There are so many people today walking around alive because of him, not only in Vietnam, but people who kept their units under control under other circumstances because they had heard his story. We may never know just how many lives he saved."

"I am a firm believer that all of us, children and adults alike, need heroes in order to call the best from us. The problem today is that so many of the heroes presented to youth are so questionable in what they invite people to emulate.... It would be refreshing to have someone like yourself talk to students at Loyola... about a different kind of heroism, one that necessarily bucks "peer pressure" when higher values are to be followed and when one's conscience is to be listened to... I am convinced that people are capable of great heroism, but they must first hear from people who have fought to the place of being considered heroic. I do not want all this talk of "hero" to frighten you away, Mr. Thompson. It is just a code word for what you did, which was essentially loving your neighbor in a profound way under difficult circumstances."

"You can't imagine what courage it took to do what he did."

"Reading about what you did at My Lai released imprisoned emotions that I didn't know I had locked away all these years. I guess My Lai had hurt and shamed me more than I knew. Your heroism in the face of that terrific evil has renewed my faith in mankind. I can't believe I'm writing this, because I am not at all emotional or morose or even deep-thinking, normally. But the description of what you did, and my spontaneous and voluntary reaction to it, has made me realize that I was deeply wounded by Vietnam, and My Lai in particular. I'll bet there are many more like me. You have healed many of my wounds. I could feel as if the emotions broke free the day I read your story. Thank you for that. Thank you also for showing all of us that man can perform moral and courageous deeds even if threatened by terrible and evil danger. You have given all of us an inspiring lesson in how to live."

"It is good that America remembers you now, because many times America forgets much too easily. It also sometimes forgets the good it has done. My personal wish is to thank you and all of the Americans who came to Vietnam to help the South Vietnamese people, not kill them. I would like to thank all U.S. soldiers who helped my mother and sister and relatives in our village because, according to my family, there were mostly good soldiers who came to our village. You took a big risk for humanity. You are a brave man and a good one."

"He was the guy who by his heroic actions gave a morality and dignity to the American military effort. At war sometimes things get topsy turvy, so he was a moral example at a time when things were pure evil."

"In yesterday's newspaper I read an account of the action you took at My Lai, protecting the Vietnamese villagers from American troops. I cried. I'm near tears again, writing this. I'm not a Vietnam veteran. I've never served in the Armed Forces, I've never been to Vietnam. But I am an American Jew who grew up in the wake of the Holocaust, studying history as an endless parade of massacres of the innocent... Usually the daily paper proves to me, over and over, that human beings would literally rather hurt each other than eat. I don't like feeling like this, but I think I always have. But every now and then. Every now and then. I collect these now-and-thens inside myself whenever and wherever I come across them. They may make me cry by day, but I cling to them at night, to keep myself warm remembering that- for all the horrors of history- human beings are capable of kindness, courage, love, self-sacrifice and passionate sympathy. It's terribly easy to forget that, and I usually do. You have reminded me."

"Thompson's friends had prepared a "Welcome Home" party for him at the Cajun Pier Restaurant, on the banks of the Bayou Vermillion in Lafayette. This would be the hero's welcome he never got when he returned from Vietnam some thirty years earlier. The party went on for a few hours, until it was obvious that the man of the hour was about to drop from fatigue. He needed to go home and go to bed. It was after midnight when he got home. His son, Steven, met him at the door. "Dad, you got a bunch of mail," Steven pointed out. There, on the coffee table, was a week's worth of mail. It was such a tall pile that some of the letters had fallen off the table and onto the floor. Thompson's eyes lit up. "Boy, that is a bunch. Who's all this from?" he asked, with energy returning to his voice. "People from all over the country. I think it's fan mail." "How did they get our address?" "Well, most of 'em don't have any real address, except Lafayette, Louisiana. Look at how some of them are addressed: 'Hero of My Lai' or "Soldier's Medal Recipient.'" All of a sudden, the weary traveler didn't feel fatigued at all. Maybe his trip to Vietnam did count for something. Maybe his whole involvement in Vietnam was worthwhile. It certainly appeared so, judging from the volume of mail that had accumulated in his absence. If Thompson ever had any doubt about the value of what he had done at My Lai, that doubt was about to leave him. If he had been burdened over the years by some sort of complex about being unappreciated, his burden was about to be lifted. He sat down on his sofa with a handful of letters and started reading."

"Calley was convicted, Nixon had made it easy on him, five hundred and four people were dead in Vietnam, it was a war crime, no one paid for it. Thompson was disgusted. The hero of My Lai had had enough. He was worn down by the tension of the courtroom, angered by the lack of justice, wounded by the mean looks and cold shoulders he was getting while out in public. Now, he just wanted to go home, back to his base at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. He just wanted to be left alone."

"Hugh Thompson, Larry Colburn and other men of goodwill- who cooperated in the Peers Inquiry and who testified repeatedly during the courts-martial and in the pre-trial hearings- had hoped to see justice done but ended up saddened and disillusioned at the outcome. A near-total sense of futility came over Thompson. He had gone to a lot of trouble for nearly no result, except for what he considered a token conviction. It would be a long, long time before he would go to that much trouble again for anyone or any cause."

"In the same months that Thompson was becoming increasingly sensitive to the disapproval of others, Lt. Calley was gaining the sympathy of more and more Americans, who held the viewpoint that he was a soldier who was just taking orders when he did what he did at My Lai. They saw Calley as a scapegoat for the transgressions of his superiors, a guy who was singled out to take the fall for the officers over him and the men around him on that day in March of 1968. Calley was, in the minds of many, a national hero."

"He was treated like a traitor for 30 years, so he was conditioned to just shut up and be quiet. Every bit of information I got from him, I had to drag it out of him."

"Thompson landed again. Glenn and I got out of the aircraft, took out the guns. Hugh walked over to this lieutenant [Brooks], and I could tell they were in a shouting match. I thought they were going to get in a fist fight. He told me later what they said. Thompson: 'Let's get these people out of this bunker and get 'em out of here.' Brooks: 'We'll get 'em out with hand grenades.' Thompson: 'I can do better than that. Keep your people in place. My guns are on you.' Hugh was outranked, so this was not good to do, but that's how committed he was to stopping it."

"You should be stripped of your stripes, you chicken-livered traitor, for the trouble you have caused our country and our military. What do you think war is? A game of ping-pong? That village was a threat to our own men. Would you rather see our men mowed down by the enemy? Your kind is our worst enemy, the rat commie within our country... You are a disgrace to the South (which is a producer of patriots), a disgrace to the nation... You are through in the service whether or not you get kicked out. If you were in the Marine Corps I don't think you would last very long. However, you will have to pay the full price of all traitors. For every man you have caused to be locked up and punished, you will walk in shame the rest of your days... May our country always be right (which is not easy when dealing with international communism). But our country right or wrong. If you don't believe that way, you are no American; you are no better than the fanatic communist animals who have trapped and killed all the U.S. military to date. You are worse than they, as you are supposed to be an American. I was proud of my town until (now). You have disgraced us all."

"They said I was screaming quite loud. I threatened never to fly again. I didn't want to be a part of that. It wasn't war."

"These people were looking at me for help and there was no way I could turn my back on them"

"I'd received death threats over the phone. Dead animals on your porch, mutilated animals on your porch some mornings when you get up. So I was not a 'good guy'."

"Something terrible happened here 30 years ago today. I cannot explain why it happened. I just wish our crew that day could have helped more people than we did."

"I'm going to go over and get them out of the bunker myself. If the squad opens up on them, shoot 'em."

"Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others."

"No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves."

"Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense."

"Never interrupt someone doing something you said couldn't be done."

"Never do things others can do and will do, if there are things others cannot do or will not do."

"Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others."

"In my life I had come to realize that when things were going very well indeed it was just the time to anticipate trouble. And, conversely, I learned from pleasant experience that at the most despairing crisis, when all looked sour beyond words, some delightful "break" was apt to lurk just around the corner."

"Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture."

"Anticipation, I suppose, sometimes exceeds realization."

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act. The rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life and the procedure. The process is its own reward."

"The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship."

"The time to worry is three months before a flight. Decide then whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying. To worry is to add another hazard. It retards reactions, makes one unfit. . . . Hamlet would have been a bad aviator. He worried too much."

"I want you to understand I shall not hold you to any midaevil code of faithfulness to me nor shall I consider myself bound to you similarly."

"As I look back on the flight I think two questions have been asked me most frequently. First: Was I afraid? Secondly: What did I wear?"

"There is so much that must be done in a civilized barbarism like war."

"In soloing—as in other activities—it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it. Almost every beginner hops off with a whoop of joy, though he is likely to end his flight with something akin to the D.T.'s."

"I understood. I was a girl-a "nervous lady." I might jump out. There had to be somebody on hand to grab my ankle as I went over. It was no use to explain I had seen aeroplanes before and wasn't excitable. I was not to be permitted to go alone in the front cockpit."

"Ours is the commencement of a flying age, and I am happy to have popped into existence at a period so interesting."

"How can Life grant us boon of living, compensate For dull grey ugliness and pregnant hate Unless we dare The soul's dominion? Each time we make a choice, we pay With courage to behold the restless day, And count it fair."

"Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release From little things: Knows not the livid loneliness of fear, Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear The sound of wings."

"When you talk about a great actor, you're not talking about Tom Cruise."

"I hate Tom Cruise. First of all, he’s always smiling. No 5' 8" man, not even one who lives on a diet of Ritalin and gin, is happy like that all the time. He’s always got this shit-eating grin on his face, like he just got a note from his managers telling him that Mimi Rogers and Nicole Kidman are extending their confidentiality agreements. Second, in TV interviews Tom laughs inappropriately and much too vociferously at non-humorous declarative statements, which is ironic because in real life he can’t take a fucking joke at all."

"The real movie stars were Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Spencer Tracy, Montgomery Clift. How could I put myself in the same category as Clark Gable? Tom Cruise is a great movie star. Do I consider myself a movie star? I consider myself a guy with a good job, an interesting job."

"The important thing with a child is that you love them, you protect them and you help them to grow and find out who they are. And as a parent, it's my responsibility to help them to become independent and get all the knowledge and a broad view of the world and life. I know that Nic [former wife Nicole Kidman] absolutely agrees with that. And that's what's important: being there."

"Working with Tom is one of the greatest gifts I've ever been given by this business."