I was scared before every battle. That old instinct of self-preservation is a pretty basic thing, but while the action was going on some part of my mind shut off and my training and discipline took over. I did what I had to do.
Audie MurphyRead
Now I have shed my first blood. I feel no qualms, no pride, no remorse. There is only a weary indifference that will follow me throughout the war.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the numbness and emotional fatigue that follows experiencing violence for the first time in war.
Audie Murphy's quote reflects the emotional turmoil and desensitization that soldiers often experience after engaging in combat. The phrase depicts a state of weary indifference that replaces the anticipated feelings of pride or remorse, emphasizing how the brutality of war can alter one's psyche and diminish emotional responses to violence.
In practice
A speaker at a veterans' event might use this quote to discuss the psychological impact of combat.
I was scared before every battle. That old instinct of self-preservation is a pretty basic thing, but while the action was going on some part of my mind shut off and my training and discipline took over. I did what I had to do.
They were singing in French, but the melody was freedom and any American could understand that.
After the war, they took Army dogs and rehabilitated them for civilian life. But they turned soldiers into civilians immediately, and let em sink or swim.
Sometimes it takes more courage to get up and run than to stay. You either just do it or you don't. I got so scared the first day in combat I just decided to go along with it.
No soldier ever really survives a war.
I always felt that whatever I had to endure was nothing compared to what the average soldier, sailor or airman had to put up with.
Who then will dare to say I'm weak or timid? No, they'll say I'm loyal as a friend, ruthless as a foe, so much like a hero destined for glory.
This is the first teaching of the Knights: You will erase everything you had written in the book of your life up until now: restlessness, uncertainty, lies. And in the place of all this you will write the word courage.
The governments of Europe are afraid to trust the people with arms. If they did, the people would certainly shake off the yoke of tyranny, as America did.
The struggle isn't just about being straight or gay or transgender - it's a human struggle. That's always really been my kind of starting point: If you're out there and you're odd, come over to my house.
I inherited depression from my mother's side of the family. Her father committed suicide. She committed suicide the year before I went to the moon.
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