I pay those guys to fly, so let them fly. I'll be damned if I'll pay them to just sit there.

There is a peculiar gratification in receiving congratulations from one's squadron for a victory in the air. It is worth more to a pilot than the applause of the whole outside world.

The four cornerstones of character on which the structure of this nation was built are: Initiative, Imagination, Individuality and Independence.

Major Richard Bong was an example of the tragic and terrible price we must pay to maintain principles of human rights, of greater value than life itself. This gallant Air Force hero will be remembered because he made his final contribution to aviation in the dangerous role of test pilot of an untried experimental plane, a deed that places him among the stout-hearted pioneers who gave their lives in the conquest of sky and space.

Flying saucers are real. Too many good men have seen them, that don't have hallucinations.

The smallest amount of vanity is fatal in aeroplane fighting. Selfdistrust rather is the quality to which many a pilot owes his protracted existence.

I can see that aerial warfare is actually scientific murder.