First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"[to Lieutenant "Doc"] Then I looked down from our bridge and saw our captain's palm tree. Our trophy for superior achievement! The Admiral John J. Finchley award for delivering more toothpaste and toilet paper than any other Navy cargo ship in the safe area of the Pacific."
"[reading Lieutenant, junior grade Douglas A. "Doug" Roberts's letter] "I've been aboard this destroyer for two weeks now, and we've already been through four air attacks. I'm in the war at last, Doc! I've caught up with that task force that passed me by. I'm glad to be here. I had to be here, I guess. But I'm thinking now of you, Doc, and you, Frank, and Dolan, and Dowdy, and Insigna, and everyone else on that bucket. All the guys everywhere who sail from tedium to apathy and back again, with an occasional side trip to monotony. This is a tough crew on here, and they have a wonderful battle record. But I've discovered, Doc, that the unseen enemy of this war is the boredom that eventually becomes a faith and, therefore, a terrible sort of suicide. And I know now that the ones who refused to surrender to it are the strongest of all. Right now, I'm looking at something that's hanging over my desk. A preposterous hunk of brass attached to the most bilious piece of ribbon I've ever seen. I'd rather have it than the Congressional Medal of Honor. It tells me what I'll always be proudest of: that at a time in the world when courage counted most, I lived among 62 brave men."
"[to Lieutenant Commander Morton] Captain, it is I, Ensign Pulver, and I just threw your stinkin' palm tree overboard! Now what's this crud about no movie tonight?"
"[on the loudspeaker in reference to his missing palm tree] All right, who did it? Who did it? You are going to stand sweating at those battle stations until someone confesses! It's an insult to the honor of this ship! The symbol of our cargo record has been destroyed, and I'm going to find out who did if it takes all night!"
"Henry Fonda - Lieutenant, junior grade Douglas A. "Doug" Roberts"
"James Cagney - Lieutenant Commander Morton"
"William Powell - Lieutenant "Doc""
"Jack Lemmon - Ensign Frank Thurlowe Pulver"
"Betsy Palmer - Lieutenant Ann Girard"
"Ward Bond - Chief Boatswain's Mate Dowdy"
"Phil Carey - Mannion"
"Nick Adams - Seaman Reber"
"Perry Lopez - Seaman Rodrigues"
"Ken Curtis - Yeoman 3rd Class Dolan"
"Robert Roark - Insignia"
"Harry Carey, Jr. - Stefanowski"
"Patrick Wayne - Bookser"
"Frank Aletter - Gerhart"
"Tige Andrews - Wiley"
"Martin Milner - Shore Patrol Ensign"
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.