"Combat is like crack cocaine. It's an enormous high, but it has enormous costs. Any sane person would never do crack. Combat is like that. You're scared, you're terrified, you're miserable, but then the fighting starts, and suddenly everything is at stake, your life, your friend's lives. It's almost transcendence because you're no longer a person. You lose that sense, you're just the platoon, and the platoon can't be beat. And not to mention there's a savage joy in overcoming your enemy, just a savage joy. And I think we make a big mistake if we say, 'oh war is hell'. We all know the 'war is hell' story—it is—but there's an enormously exhilarating part of it."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Businesspeople from the United StatesNovelists from the United StatesMemoirists from the United StatesPeople from OregonUnited States Marines
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
The Vietnam War (2017), Episode 7
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Karl_Marlantes
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Karl Marlantes
Karl Arthur Marlantes (born December 24, 1944) is an American novelist and former U.S. Marine in the Vietnam War, who was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals.
4 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Karl Marlantes →
Related Quotes
"One of the things that I learned in the war is that we're not the top species on the planet because we're nice. We ar…"
"He thought of the jungle, already regrowing around him to cover the scars they had created. He thought of the tiger, …"
"War is society's dirty work, usually done by kids cleaning up failures perpetrated by adults."
"Would you end war? Create great Peace."
"To be a god First I must be a god-maker: We are what we create."
"Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses."
"Up in the heights of the evening skies I see my City of Cities float In sunset’s golden and crimson dyes: I look, and…"
"They can only set free men free... And there is no need of that: Free men set themselves free."
"Hadn't he been blowing kisses to Earth millions of years before I was born?"
"Quick as a hummingbird is my love, Dipping into the hearts of flowers—She darts so eagerly, swiftly, sweetly, Dipping…"