"One Sunday, I was carrying out my training in a reveries, my imagination running wild as I gunned my machine into a tight turn, dipping low to compensate for centrifugal force. Suddenly over the din of the exhaust there came the frantic scream of a frightened horse. I hurriedly braked and watched the terrified animal plunge down the side of the mountain, then across the stream and into the trees on the other side. It was obviously a U.S. Cavalry mount. Between calling soothing words to his animal, the uniformed rider shouted for me to cut my engine. I almost fell off the motorcycle when I realized it was Colonel Robert C. Richardson, the commandant of cadets. Fumbling to still my raving engine, I leaped from the machine, praying out loud that the "Com" could regain control before both he and his horse were killed. All my plans for a commission as a second lieutenant seemed to hang in the balance, but I dismissed these selfish thoughts and raced down the mountain, determined to reach the Com in time to be of some aid."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Military leaders from the United StatesNon-fiction authors from the United StatesMemoirists from the United StatesAviators from the United StatesUnited States Air Force people
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 13
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Lee_Scott_Jr.
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Robert Lee Scott Jr.
Robert Lee Scott Jr. (12 April 1908 β 27 February 2006) was a brigadier general in the United States Air Force and a flying ace of World War II, credited with shooting down 13 Japanese aircraft. Scott is best known for his memoir, God is My Co-Pilot (1943), about his exploits in World War II with the Flying Tigers and the United States Army Air Forces in China and Burma. The book was adapted as a film of the same name, which was released in 1945.
14 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Robert Lee Scott Jr. β
Related Quotes
"I was flying with 1,000-pound bombs attached to my P-51. We were escorting B-29s sent to bomb steel mills in Korea. Oβ¦"
"The only time I've ever been moderately successful in combat was in the bottom of my class at West Point because of aβ¦"
"I cleared the first magnolia, but then the main wing strut broke, and I came down in Mrs. Napier's rose bushes. It's β¦"
"For now, the seriousness of war had gradually come to me. Unless men like myself-thousands and millions of them-left β¦"
"There is an archaic regulation at West Point that says a cadet shall not own a horse, a dog, or a moustache. Had the β¦"
"Weekends became training manoeuvres conducted in total secrecy- a uniformed cadet could hardly ride a motorcycle openβ¦"
"Colonel Richardson had everything safely under control long before I caught up with him, drenched to the waist after β¦"
"Why are such machines necessary, a schoolchild might well ask? I would answer that having such weapons ready is the bβ¦"
"As these words are being written, I am in the process of moving back to Georgia. Whatever the merits of Horace Greeleβ¦"
"Anyway, my adventures had run out by 1982 when I made the worst mistake of my life by shutting myself away to work niβ¦"