Some wisdom from military manuals

'If the enemy is in range, so are you.' - Infantry Journal -


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'It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed.' - US Air Force Manual -


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'Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword, obviously never encountered automatic weapons.' - General MacArthur -


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'You, you, and you ... panic. The rest of you, come with me.' - US Marine Corp Gunnery Sgt. -


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'Tracers work both ways.' - US Army Ordnance Manual -


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'Five second fuses only last three seconds.' - Infantry Journal -


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The three most useless things in aviation are: Fuel in the bowser; Runway behind you; and Air above you. - Basic Flight Training Manual -


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'Any ship can be a minesweeper. Once.' - Maritime Ops Manual -


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'Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do.' - Anonymous Marine Recruit -


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'If you see a bomb technician running, try to keep up with him.' - USAF Ammo Troop -


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'Yea, Though I Fly Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 50,000 Feet and Climbing.' - Sign over SR71 Wing Ops -


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'You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3.' - Paul F. Crickmore (SR71 test pilot) -


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'The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.' - Anonymous Author -


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'If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage it has to be a helicopter -- and therefore, unsafe.' - Fixed Wing Pilot -


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'When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane, you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash.' - Multi-Engine Training Manual -


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'Without ammunition, the USAF is just an expensive flying club.' - Anonymous Author -


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'If you hear me yell, "Eject, Eject, Eject!", the last two will be echos.' If you stop to ask "Why?", you'll be talking to yourself, because you're the pilot.' - Pre-flight Briefing from a 104 Pilot-


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'What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; but If ATC screws up ..... the pilot dies.' - Sign over Control Tower Door-


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'Never trade luck for skill.' - Anonymous -


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The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in military aviation are: 'Did you feel that?', 'What's that noise?' and 'Oh S...!' or (appended from the Arkansas Air National Guard): "Hold my beer and watch this!" - Anonymous Authors -


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'Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight.' - Basic Flight Training Manual -


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'Mankind has a perfect record in aviation - we have never left one up there!' - Anonymous Author -


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'Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it.' - Emergency Checklist -


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'The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you.' - Attributed to Max Stanley (Northrop test pilot) -


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'There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime.' - Sign over Squadron Ops Desk at Davis-Montham AFB, Arizona -


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'If something hasn't broken on your helicopter, it's about to.' - Sign over Carrier Group Operations Desk -


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'You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal.' - Lead-in Fighter Training Manual -