Nathaniel Fick Quotes & Sayings

Marine training is essentially a psychological battle against the instinct for self-preservation. — Nathaniel Fick

My team is the best, the platoon is good, the company is awful, and the battalion is actively trying to kill us. — Nathaniel Fick

Hardness," I was learning, was the supreme virtue among recon Marines. The greatest compliment one could pay to another was to say he was hard. Hardness wasn't toughness, nor was it courage, although both were part of it. Hardness was the ability to face an overwhelming situation with aplomb, smile calmly at it, and then triumph through sheer professional pride. — Nathaniel Fick

Worst of all were the accolades and thanks from people "for what you guys did over there." Thanks for what, I wanted to ask - shooting kids, cowering in terror behind a berm, dropping artillery on people's homes? — Nathaniel Fick

The Marines,' my dad said, 'will teach you everything I love you too much to teach you. — Nathaniel Fick

Do nothing but be prepared to do anything. — Nathaniel Fick

People build continuity into their life: Places, friends and goals. We go to work on Monday with plans for Friday night, enroll as freshmen intending to be seniors and save money for retirement. We try to control what comes next and shape it to meet our will. — Nathaniel Fick

Great Marine commanders, like all great warriors, are able to kill that which they love most -- their men. — Nathaniel Fick

I thought I was losing my mind. The only way I knew I was still sane was that I thought I might be going crazy. Surely, that awareness meant I was sane. Crazy people think they're sane. Only sane people can thing they're crazy. I was reduced to taking comfort in a tautology. — Nathaniel Fick

When you are serving volunteer professional military, you take an oath to the Constitution, not to a policy or a president and you swear to obey the lawful orders of the democratically elected government. And so at the end of the day you could table your personal political views and do your job. — Nathaniel Fick

Strong combat leadership is never by committee. Platoon commanders must command, and command in battle isn't based on consensus. It's based on consent. Any leader wields only as much authority and influence as is conferred by the consent of those he leads. The Marines allowed me to be their commander, and they could revoke their permission at any time. — Nathaniel Fick

Your job is to be the hardest motherfucker in your platoon," he said while pointing at me across the desk. "Do that, and everything else will fall into place."
He added that I was assigned to Bravo Company, call sign Hitman, and wished me luck. — Nathaniel Fick

Complex ideas must be made simple, or they'll remain ideas and never be put into action. — Nathaniel Fick

Christeson, cut that stop sign down and put it in the back of the truck". He looked at me in disbelief. An Officer had never before ordered him to commit vandalism. — Nathaniel Fick

VJ had gone to the Naval Academy, where he competed as a powerlifter and developed a distaste for military customs such as short hair and addressing people by rank. — Nathaniel Fick

I hurt for my Marines, goodhearted American guys who'd bear these burdens for the rest of their lives. And I mourned for myself. Not in self-pity, but for the kid who'd come to Iraq. He was gone. I did all this in the dark, away from the platoon, because combat command is the loneliest job in the world. — Nathaniel Fick

Tactical catastrophes are rarely the outcome of a single poor decision. Small compromises incrementally close off options until a commander is forced into actions he would never choose freely. — Nathaniel Fick

The rule of captivity is to bend, not break. — Nathaniel Fick

You can't volunteer to go to war and then bitch about getting shot at. — Nathaniel Fick

Infantry Marines live only and forever in the real world. — Nathaniel Fick

I was in Afghanistan and then obviously in Iraq. And I realized that you can't control life. You can do a lot to prepare. You can train, and at the end of the day there's an element that's always going to be beyond your control. — Nathaniel Fick

Tell me what to do, not how to do it.' Decentralize command and allow subordinates to operate freely within the framework of the commander's intent. Train them as a team. Develop trust, loyalty, initiative. — Nathaniel Fick