A Man's Task Is To Find Himself,

A Man's Task Is To Find Himself, And If He Fails In This, It Doesn't Much Matter What Else He Finds.

But There Are No Loners. No Man Lives In A Void. His Every Act Is Conditioned By His Time And His Society.

He [gen. Douglas Macarthur] Was A Great Thundering Paradox Of A Man, Noble And Ignoble, Inspiring And Outrageous, Arrogant And Shy, The Best Of Men And The Worst Of Men, The Most Protean, Most Ridiculous, And Most Sublime.

One Strange Feeling, Which I Remember Clearly, Was A Powerful Link With The Slain, Particularly Those That Had Fallen Within The Past Hour Or Two. There Was So Much Death Around That Life Seemed Almost Indecent. Some Men's Uniforms Were Soaked With Gobs Of Blood. The Ground Was Sodden With It. I Killed, Too.

Men Do Not Fight For Flag Or Country, For The Marine Corps Or Glory Or Any Other Abstraction. They Fight For One Another. And If You Came Through This Ordeal, You Would Age With Dignity.