Tell me the greatest quotes a mentor has told you!

Gonavyusna

Gonavyusna

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My Senior Naval Science Instructor, a retired captain and pilot, is no stranger to sending cadets to the Academy. Upon meeting him last year when I first moved, I heard that I was his fourth or fifth cadet receiving an appointment in his six years so far teaching here!

Upon talking to him for my NROTC interview, I told him I wanted to be a Naval Flight Officer. He succinctly replied,

"Do you want to be the Goose or the Maverick?"

He convinced me now to aspire to become a full Naval Aviator. Other pieces of advice he has given me include,

"As a pilot you are going to be expected to hold completely unoriginal conversations verbatim in movie quotes."

Though our military heroes have had their words engraved into our history, quotes that have been said to us directly hit closer to home. What have your mentors said to you that still stick?
 
Gonavyusna said:
My Senior Naval Science Instructor, a retired captain and pilot, is no stranger to sending cadets to the Academy. Upon meeting him last year when I first moved, I heard that I was his fourth or fifth cadet receiving an appointment in his six years so far teaching here!

Upon talking to him for my NROTC interview, I told him I wanted to be a Naval Flight Officer. He succinctly replied,

"Do you want to be the Goose or the Maverick?"

He convinced me now to aspire to become a full Naval Aviator. Other pieces of advice he has given me include,

"As a pilot you are going to be expected to hold completely unoriginal conversations verbatim in movie quotes."

Though our military heroes have had their words engraved into our history, quotes that have been said to us directly hit closer to home. What have your mentors said to you that still stick?
Click to expand...

I hope your mentor hasn't sent too many cadets to USNA, if that's the SA you mean. Midshipmen, maybe...

I suspect most Naval Flight Officers (NFOs) would disagree about not being "full Naval Aviators." Quite often it's just a matter of being a snick out of standard on eyesight, and they are not just a bag of sand in the back seat. They have a mission and purpose, and are not "less than." Now, tongue-in-cheek, there is always a lot of intra-family trash talk amongst various officer communities.

You should pursue the path that interests you and feels like a good fit. Be open to all.

That said, yes, pithy advice delivered directly often resonates more and stays in the memory longer. You will get some good replies.

"As you join the admiral ranks, your jokes do not get funnier, you do not get better-looking, and you do not become infallible. Watch your pride. It will be your downfall." Said by a Chief of Naval Operations to a room full of newly selected flag officers.
 
Capt MJ said:
I hope your mentor hasn't sent too many cadets to USNA, if that's the SA you mean. Midshipmen, maybe...

I suspect most Naval Flight Officers (NFOs) would disagree about not being "full Naval Aviators." Quite often it's just a matter of being a snick out of standard on eyesight, and they are not just a bag of sand in the back seat. They have a mission and purpose, and are not "less than." Now, tongue-in-cheek, there is always a lot of intra-family trash talk amongst various officer communities.

You should pursue the path that interests you and feels like a good fit. Be open to all.

That said, yes, pithy advice delivered directly often resonates more and stays in the memory longer. You will get some good replies.

"As you join the admiral ranks, your jokes do not get funnier, you do not get better-looking, and you do not become infallible. Watch your pride. It will be your downfall." Said by a Chief of Naval Operations to a room full of newly selected flag officers.
Click to expand...

By cadets I meant members of my NJROTC Unit. And yes ma'am, he was just joking around with the NFO vs. Naval Aviator business. I still have a lot to read about before I decide to commit to a community...
 
"Come on you sons of *****es, do you want to live forever?" Daniel Daly

Ride to the sound of the guns.
 
"The moment you half-ass any task, is the moment you become a useless Sailor".
-An Intel JO
I look up to him immensely, he's my current main mentor on my ship.
 
"Go away and go f&*$(*ing learn something" - LTJG supply officer (SS) when I tried to BS an answer on a qual as a mid.
 
scoutpilot said:
"In the absence of further orders, attack."

" Feed me ammunition whenever you hear the gun get quiet." -Paul R. Smith

"Well, what are you gonna do now, LT?" =CW4 instructor pilot as he chopped the throttle in the downwind.
Click to expand...

Funny about your first one. I was told early on when I got to my first unit something similar. "In the absence of guidance, execute."
 
"I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6." Former THIRD Fleet Commander during a Rules of Engagement brief.

"If it's not in the NATOPS manual, then it's not prohibited!"

"Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission."

"BUC 804, please don't do that around my ship again." CO USS Lexington, AVT-16, after I settled off the bow on my first catapult launch.
 
"No good deed goes unpunished."-Former CO after an arrest became political.
 
The Dean Martin Hangover Cure (From The Dean Martin Variety Show, circa 1968):

"Wake up & start drinking again."

Been chasing the same hangover for 30 years. Gonna catch up to me someday, I'm sure.

Regards.
 
"First babies come any time. Second babies take nine months," explained my mother to me at age 9, when my eldest sister, aged 21, got married on Valentine's Day and had my niece June 18. Taught me the values of kindness and discretion (hard lessons, sometimes, both).
 
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