True Believer Quotes

“Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimum food or water, in austere conditions, day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon, and he made his web gear, He doesn't worry about hat workout to do - his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. The True Believer doesn't care how hard it is; he only knows that he wins or he dies. He doesn't go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the cause.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“To those before us, to those amongst us, to those we’ll see on the other side. Lord let me not prove unworthy of my brothers.” “Until Valhalla, Freddy.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“To those before us, to those amongst us, to those we'll see on the other side, Lord let me not prove unworthy of my brothers.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“luck was the residue of preparation.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“There are few better ways to attract attention than by throwing money around.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Islam is a religion, just as Christianity is a religion. Islamism is the idea that a certain interpretation, any interpretation, of Islam must be imposed on society at large. It’s a political movement, a totalitarian movement, with Islam as its vehicle, with the goal of eventually creating the Khilafah.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Stupid Americans. Didn’t they comprehend what was happening? They were killing themselves. While they foolishly spent their treasure and spilled their blood in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen, the very ideology they were fighting to defeat was moving into their cities, their schools, their very government. The freedoms the West championed so proudly would be their ultimate downfall. Those freedoms would be targeted and exploited. Their freedoms were their weakness. Know thy enemy.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Strain rose to retrieve his Iridium satellite phone and placed a call to Langley, letting them know he had successfully recruited America’s most-wanted domestic terrorist.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“The soon-to-be-retired general had accepted a position as president general of the Society of Cincinnati, the oldest patriotic group in the United States.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“That meant attending Officer Candidate School (OCS) at Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, where the Navy turned civilian candidates and enlisted sailors into butter-bar ensigns in a matter of weeks—expertise in folding underwear and T-shirts somehow qualifying one to lead men into battle.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“If you get in a helicopter and it’s not leaking, get ready to crash because that means it’s out of hydraulic fluid.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Somewhere a True Believer is training to kill you. He is training with minimum food or water, in austere conditions, day and night. The only thing clean on him is his weapon, and he made his web gear. He doesn’t worry about what workout to do—his ruck weighs what it weighs, his runs end when the enemy stops chasing him. The True Believer doesn’t care how hard it is; he only knows that he wins or he dies. He doesn’t go home at 1700; he is home. He knows only the cause.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“What lay ahead in the blackness? One man? Two? A squad of heavily armed terrorists? Had they already mixed the binary components of the Novichok? Were thousands of Ukrainians already dead and dying from the deadly compound? Reece pressed on.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Reece thought of one of Ox’s favorite sayings: “If you get in a helicopter and it’s not leaking, get ready to crash because that means it’s out of hydraulic fluid.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Mo had been the one Iraqi commander who stood head and shoulders above his peers. He excelled in both the planning and tactical execution of direct-action missions, spoke English almost fluently, and had the trust of both his men and the senior leadership of the MOI.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Being an “expert” in anything means doing the basics exceptionally well, so Reece started with the fundamentals”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Tired of a bureaucracy that tied their hands with absurd rules of engagement and a system that, as Lieutenant Colonel Paul Yingling famously noted, imposed harsher punishments on privates who lost rifles than on generals who lost wars, Raife didn’t look back. He left the SEAL side of his life behind and dropped off the radar.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“As shoppers stayed home, brick-and-mortar stores had lost out on the holiday income that usually put them in the black for the year. The ordinarily chaotic shopping scenes on the Friday after Thanksgiving had been replaced by empty retailers whose shelves stood piled with unsold merchandise. Instead of flocking to movie theaters and restaurants over the holidays, consumers sat at home and fed on the fear stoked by the twenty-four-hour news media. The ripple effect was felt across nearly all sectors of the economy as demand fell.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“imperial Russia. He was a member of the Black Hundreds, an ultranationalist society that espoused a motto of “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality.” The Black Hundreds despised anything and anyone who would challenge the House of Romanov: communists, Jews, and Ukrainian nationalists.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“We are the accumulation of our past experiences. How we channel those experiences and knowledge into wisdom as we move forward is critical.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Why did taking the life of a wild creature always give him a pause? Maybe it was because there was time; time to stalk, time to choose, time to contemplate the impact of removing an animal from the ecosystem to nourish his family. Life begets life, and death is a natural part of the cycle. In combat one kills as quickly and efficiently as possible and then moves on to the next target. Killing his fellow man was not something that gave Reece pause. One was to provide sustenance while the other was to protect the tribe.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Reece nodded, remembering all that his friends had done to help him avenge his family and his Team. There had been an emptiness to those killings. Born of pure rage, their purpose had been death unto itself. What he'd done since Freddy tracked him down in Mozambique had been different. The purpose of the killing he'd done on this new mission had been life.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“It was the first time he’d circumvented the chain of command, going around his boss in the SOCOM Acquisition Office. With results like this he might have to do it more often.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“tarmac,”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“The Cossacks’ irreverent response read, in part, “O sultan, Turkish devil and damned devil’s kith and kin, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are thou, that canst not slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil shits, and your army eats. Thou shalt not, thou son of a whore, make subjects of Christian sons; we have no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, fuck thy mother.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Being an “expert” in anything means doing the basics exceptionally well,”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Well, after the tipping point of the UBL books, they came after everybody doing outside employment. They said we were teaching ‘sniper’ tactics and giving away TTPs. Of course, that wasn’t even close to what we were doing. I learned that the justice system is not always out to do what’s right. They are out for the win. It was an eye-opener.” “Sounds like I should have added a few people to my list,” Reece offered with a slight smile. “Ha! I have a few names for you, for next time.” “So, what happened?” “They took a bunch of us to mast. You wouldn’t have believed it, Reece: standing right next to the CO was the CMC who’d taught tactics and CQC out at Blackwater in North Carolina for years to make extra money on the weekends. Guess he just forgot.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Looks like you had most of the Team Seven armory laid out up there: LAWs, an AT-4, an Mk 48.” “It was a good position.” “Yeah, well, thanks again.” Freddy paused. “But like I said, that wasn’t the only reason I left.” “Really? I thought you loved the Teams.” “I did. Remember the witch hunts that went down in the wake of the ‘tell-all’ book on the big mish?” Freddy asked, referencing one of the many nonfiction books on the Osama bin Laden mission. “I remember. What a shit show. The same people that gave the green light to that Hollywood movie starring active-duty SEALs and benefited more than a little bit from BUD/S tours they gave wealthy donors to the different SEAL foundations suddenly got convenient cases of amnesia. They fried a bunch of guys for off-duty employment, from what I remember.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Learn everything you can from them. They’re uneducated in the formal sense but they are professors of the bush.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer

“Grabbing his Gatorz sunglasses from the small bedside table, Reece picked up his rifle and headed toward the parking area.”
― Jack Carr, True Believer