Firemen don't talk about whether a burning warehouse is worth saving.

The negative effects of combat were nightmares, and I'd get jumpy around certain noises and stuff, but you'd have that after a car accident or a bad divorce. Life's filled with trauma. You don't need to go to war to find it it's going to find you. We all deal with it, and the effects go away after awhile. At least they did for me.

A grenade launcher will easily take out a tank; a Molotov cocktail placed in its air intake will destroy one as well.

The attacks of 9/11 came out of Afghanistan. It was a failed state, a rogue nation. That's why al Qaeda was there in the first place.

Who wants a life of ease? And who wants a life in the office that you hate, and who wants to play golf?

At 19, your brain hasn't finished wiring itself. So the first time you have a good friend die, most people don't go through that at 19. Soldiers do. They're facing life in this accelerated, compressed form, and a lot of times, they're not ready for it.

Maybe the ultimate wound is the one that makes you miss the war you got it in.