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Core American Values

Patriotism is more than fighting for one's country. It is sharing the never fully paid price of freedom which was bequeathed to us who enjoy it today. Not to squander, but to preserve and enhance for those who will follow after us.

- Joseph E Sintoni, Killed in Action in Vietnam, 1968

Patton One of the greatest screen biographies ever produced, this monumental epic, which follows Patton from his arrival in North Africa in 1943 through the days immediately following the German surrender in 1945, won seven Academy Awards and included the performance of George C. Scott's life.

Loyalty. Duty. Respect. Service. Honor. Integrity. Courage. These are among the core American values manifested by those men and women in uniform who gave their lives in all American wars. Invigorating recognition of those values for all Americans, whether or not they have a direct connection to War. The secret is to not look at the war, but at the human experience of war and the web of lives affected.

These words need to be elevated and their meanings restored because they have been corrupted over time due to America’s social amnesia. Service to our country is a noble thing. The key concepts for core democratic values are expressed in the Delcaration of Independence, The American Constitution, the Gettysburg Address and other foundational documents of the United States.

At the heart of America is a set of core values and principles. They are the values and principles that drove the Founding Fathers to cast off the chains of British tyranny and form the United States of America. They are the values and principles that made the United States the freest, most prosperous country on earth, and they are also the values and principles that millions of Americans have fought and died to protect. These values and principles are not a random collection of seemingly good ideas, but a single, consistent framework that encapsulates what it means to be an American.

All humans are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. People must be free to determine the course of their own lives, to succeed by virtue of their own talents and efforts, and to worship (or not) as their conscience directs. This liberty necessarily carries with it a duty to take personal responsibility for one’s actions. The role of government should be to protect the unalienable rights of its citizens and to facilitate the power of individual choice.

Our country has a rich tradition of values that has come to represent us as a nation. Americans may not always see eye to eye on political issues, but we will defend the ideals on which our country is based. These values are present in American history and they represent the core values for which American's stand.

Freedom

We have fought since the creation of our country to maintain our autonomy from other nations. The Fourth of July is a reminder of what we struggled to secure, but freedom is something we practice every day. Our men and women serving overseas know its value and act to ensure that others in the world can experience what we often take for granted.

Favoring The Underdog

While we often put winners on pedestals, we like nothing better than to root for those who are outgunned or outmanned, hoping that they will topple the favored ones. Fans love the underdog and will be the first to celebrate the come-from-behind, never-say-die attitude they embody.

Independence

Teamwork is something we strive for, but being able to stand on one's own is just as important. Whether it is supporting a small business or championing the unsponsored driver trying to make it in a world of big-money sponsors, we like to know that we can fend for ourselves.

Loyalty

A man's word is his honor. Circumstances may mean that we have to switch employers. But being able to stay true to our friends, family and fellow Americans allows us to sleep well at night.

Determination

No one likes a quitter, and those who put in 100 percent will likely reap the fruits of their efforts. There is little that we can control in; life, but pouring our own blood, sweat and tears into a project ensures that we gave it our best effort. Folks who give it their all earn the respect of their peers - and the fans.

Pioneering Spirit

In America we take pride in being the first to create things, and we try to lead the pack once we have undertaken something. Being first is second only to being No. 1, whether it is in inventions, discoveries or even racing. Imitation is the highest form of flattery, and once you have a good thing, everyone wants it.

Patriotism

From bumper stickers to songs, Americans love to support the red, white and blue. Kids are drilled with the Pledge of Allegiance from an early age, the American flag is present everywhere we look, and being an American is something of which to be proud. Charlie Daniels’ had a response to the Iran hostage crisis and the renewed patriotism it ignited. The record reached #11 in Billboard. In America

Competitiveness

Even when the chips are down, the odds are stacked against us and winning seems hopeless, we never give up, either as individuals or as a nation. We want to be the best we can be, whether it means winning the local council election or driving into the winner's circle. Giving it our best shot is a matter of personal pride and a testament to our spirit.

Somewhere In England, June 5th, 1944

Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn't give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That's why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.

You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he's not, he's a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen.

All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call "chicken shit drilling". That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don't give a fuck for a man who's not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn't be here. You are ready for what's to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you're not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!

There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily, all because one man went to sleep on the job. But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did. An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don't know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!

We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world. Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we're going up against. By God, I do.

My men don't surrender, I don't want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That's not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!

All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don't ever let up. Don't ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn't like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, "Hell, they won't miss me, just one man in thousands". But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don't think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the 'G.I. Shits'.

Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, "Fixing the wire, Sir". I asked, "Isn't that a little unhealthy right about now?" He answered, "Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed". I asked, "Don't those planes strafing the road bother you?" And he answered, "No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!" Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the road to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren't combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable.

Don't forget, you men don't know that I'm here. No mention of that fact is to be made in any letters. The world is not supposed to know what the hell happened to me. I'm not supposed to be commanding this Army. I'm not even supposed to be here in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddamned Germans. Some day I want to see them raise up on their piss-soaked hind legs and howl, 'Jesus Christ, it's the Goddamned Third Army again and that son-of-a-fucking-bitch Patton'.

We want to get the hell over there, the quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit.

Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!

When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. My men don't dig foxholes. I don't want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don't give the enemy time to dig one either. We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we've got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We're not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we're going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket. War is a bloody, killing business. You've got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it's the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you'll know what to do!

I don't want to get any messages saying, "I am holding my position." We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy's balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!

From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don't give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that.

There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana." No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, "Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!"

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