Top 6 Quotes by Nathaniel Fick

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

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

Team, Trying, Awful

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

Iraq, The End Of The Day, Elements

"Nathaniel Fick: 'One Bullet Away'". Interview with Jeffrey Brown, www.pbs.org. November 10, 2005.

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

Hurt, Jobs, Kids

Nathaniel Fick (2006). “One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer”, p.243, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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

Senior, Friday, Monday

Nathaniel Fick (2006). “One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer”, p.194, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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

Jobs, Military, Government