"It is said there will be no more war. We must pretend to believe that. But when war comes, it is we who will take the first shock and buy time with our lives. It is we who keep the faith. We are not honored for it. We are called mercenaries on the outposts of empire. … We serve the flag. The trade we follow is the give and take of death. It is for that purpose the American people maintain us. Any one of us who believes he has a job like any other, for which he draws a money wage, is a thief of the food he eats and a trespasser in the bunk in which he lies down to sleep!"
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Science fiction authors from the United StatesNovelists from the United StatesShort story writers from the United StatesSailorsPeople from Idaho
Original Language: English
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Ch. 5; speech of Lt. Collins
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Richard_McKenna
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Richard McKenna
Richard Milton McKenna (9 May 1913 – 1 November 1964) was an American sailor and writer, most famous for his one completed novel, The Sand Pebbles, which was published in 1963.
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