[Ads-l] Quote: Out of every 100 soldiers, 10 should not even be here, eighty are just targets . .. only one is a warrior (Probably not Heraclitus)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Nice work. And remember the 1966 hit:

"One hundred men we'll test today.
Only three win the green beret."

JL

On Tue, Aug 27, 2024 at 11:49 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:

> The following statement has been attributed to the ancient Greek
> philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus:
>
> "Of every 100 men, 10 should not even be here, 80 are nothing more
> than targets. Nine of them are the real fighters. We are lucky to have
> them, they the battle make. Ah, but the one. One of them is a warrior
> and he will bring the others back."
>
> An email correspondent asked me to explore the provenance of the
> statement. I found no substantive evidence that Heraclitus was the
> creator. Instead, I hypothesize that the statement evolved from a
> monologue in the play "Tracers" which was performed Off Broadway in
> New York in 1984. During one scene the character Sgt. Williams, who
> was training U.S. soldiers for deployment in Vietnam, turned to the
> audience and described the dangerous situation on the battlefield, and
> his quest to find a warrior.
>
> [ref] 1985, The Burns Mantle Theater Yearbook: The Best Plays of
> 1984-1985, Edited by Otis L. Guernsey Jr., Section: The Ten Best
> Plays, Play Title: Tracers, Start Page 165, Quote Page 171, Dodd, Mead
> & Company, New York. (Verified with scans) [/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> They are now eighteen and nineteen years old. Before they are
> twenty-one, nearly half of them will be killed or wounded. With a
> two-year draft, we send out amateurs to play against pros in a game
> for keeps.
>
> Ten per cent should not even be here. Eighty per cent are targets; we
> have no time to train them to be more. Ten per cent are fighters. One
> in a hundred may become a warrior. I must seek him out. I must come
> down heavy on him. Upon him the success or failure of our present
> conflict lies…..
> [End excerpt]
>
> More details are available in the Quote Investigator article here:
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2024/08/27/one-warrior/
>
> Feedback welcome
> Garson O’Toole
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org