Dead Center Quotes

“I don’t know what the life force is and don’t have any use for religion. I do know that in the war business, the light you have grows a little weaker each time you deal in death.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“I got over my wave of giving a shit and then regained my senses.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“a lot of lives in Vietnam were wasted by the folks driving those big desks in Washington. It’s easy to make a decision when you don’t have to look the people in the eye who have to carry it out. And reminding people of that is my purpose with this book.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“Walking point was adrenaline drippin’ from your ears and a butt squeezed so tight you couldn’t drive a tenpenny nail up it with a jackhammer. Let me at it!”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“I loved the guy. He was five feet seven inches tall, meaner than a bear with a sore ass, shaved his head bald, and talked like he had a mouth full of gravel. He was one badass Marine. He weighed in about 210 and wanted no shit from no one.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“I slid my hand back down his leg to his boot to get hold of the wire. Hood leaned down, and whispered, “Kug, that feels good, turns me on.” What an asshole! I found his laces and sure enough, on his left leg, the one bent back, was a trip wire.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“Stu was six feet four inches of pure badass. He was a great guy to have around when you needed to run through a wall or knock down a tree.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“A bullet or two thudded into the soaked ground right next to me. My asshole froze, then jumped right up my throat as another round broke a branch by my left foot.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“I know the private was a grunt just by his attitude. You’ve got to love those guys; they’re the real people of life. And they’re hit on, shit on, tramped on, and fucked with forever.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“I divorced myself from the dead guy. I decided that life in Nam was just that way. Whatever emotions I had, needed a cement vault to hide in. And they would hide, even if I had to push them in and shut the door. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. Winners got up in the morning; losers didn’t.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“He looked at me with a sly grin and said, “Kugler, Kugler—it’s just a war. Throw your shit together in the A.M. We’ll go get ’em. It’ll be fun. You’ll see.” I didn’t know what to make of him.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“Finally, after three long, hot, and dry weeks, we were at the end of training. We were snipers! Marine scout-snipers! DuBay chaired a formal meeting and pronounced each of us ready, trained, and real live, bonafide snipers. And damned if we didn’t think we were.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“The engineers wanted us to be able to blow the booby traps we found so others wouldn’t get killed. Some guys really got off working with explosives. I mean, their eyes lit up, and they got all happy. It did weird things to people. It was interesting as hell to me, but I knew how dangerous that shit was.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“When the platoon got going, he’d act as the armorer. He offered us a choice of weapons. A Winchester Model 70, 30-06 was the basic weapon of choice.”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“In the annals of time, how many people had walked our earth as a sniper?”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War

“He continued yelling and screaming, calling us scumbags and maggots. He even said, “You are mere pimples on the face of humanity.” I thought he was supposed to be glad to see us. What was the issue?”
― Ed Kugler, Dead Center: A Marine Sniper's Two-Year Odyssey in the Vietnam War