The Mosquito Bowl Quotes

“They are all but forgotten now, as all men in war are ultimately forgotten. They are eternal, as all men in war are eternal. Who they were, where they were from in an America both blessed and brutal, the gung ho innocence that turned into the darkest horror as they traveled through the maze of being a marine, is not some period piece or contrived cautionary tale but the most timeless story of all: of humanity in the face of all that has become inhuman, the inhumanity of all that once was human, the remarkable sacrifice that men are still willing to make even when the world has gone mad, united by that thing you cannot ever control in war, however brave or careful or fearful or raging with revenge: who dies, because so many died after that game; who lives, because many did live despite combat and serious injury. The Mosquito Bowl.”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“He handled problems himself without kicking his men upstairs into court-martial and a permanent black mark on their records.”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“Fowler commanded respect as an officer because he treated his men with respect. He was a natural-born leader. He believed in decorum and responsibility.”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“He was too wise for that kind of carelessness, going to the front and sticking out like that. But”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“tried to tell him what I had seen, but he knew it all. Keeps repeating his wise-cracks. ‘The Lord said let there be mud,’ etc. etc. . . . There is NO tactical thinking or push. No plan was ever discussed at the meetings to hasten the fight or help the divisions.”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“They served at nine hundred different shore stations across the United States not simply in clerical roles but as aviation machinists, control tower operators, statisticians, cryptographers, and weather forecasters. Predictably Congress was initially opposed to the idea of women serving in the navy, but thanks to the efforts of First Lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt, a bill establishing a women’s reserve as a branch of the Naval Reserve was enacted in 1942. As indoctrination into navy life, Odette and other candidates took courses while stationed at Smith in naval history and organization, ships and aircraft, and law and communications. An hour and a half was spent each day either in military drill or in the gymnasium. Women who were not up to standards were quickly billeted out. Subsequent to graduation in February of 1943, Odette was sent to US Naval Training”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“Gaining his men’s trust was the most difficult task he had faced in his life, but he had done it by depending largely on his intuition. Every facet of military life was spelled out, except perhaps for common sense. Now, in the early part of 1944,”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“Although Schreiner had been the second-round draft pick of the Detroit Lions, Stuhldreher dissuaded him from even considering it. Pro ball was good for a little quick money, maybe, but players hung on too long and after that could not adjust to other fields. He spoke from experience, having played professionally for three years, watching men unable to cope with the inevitable diminishment of their physical skills, their bodies breaking down from too many hits, too much viciousness, and too much disregard for injuries. “They are not a credit to anyone,” he wrote, the one thing they were good at being of no use in the real world. He bluntly told Schreiner that he would never top the laurels he had already received in college football, so there was no point in going pro”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“It was all good fun, but Schreiner increasingly began to question why he was there. He did not think it was in the expectation of his getting better at horseshoes and bridge. “Everything continues here as usual with the chow excellent, the water cold, and with nothing at all to do,” he wrote to his parents. “It appears to some people that we are making a huge sacrifice but Lord knows we’re not. We have excellent facilities, the climate is good, we don’t work hard and my only complaint is that we’re not accomplishing a darn thing.”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“In 1937, the amphibious assault doctrine was issued by the Marine Corps and ultimately adopted by the navy. But a study was a study and a manual was a manual and tests in the field were tests in the field. The only way to see if the theory worked was to attack an entrenched enemy with real action, real bodies, and real ammunition. Tarawa became that battle, marking in earnest the start of the island-hopping campaign through the central Pacific that would ultimately lead to Okinawa on the doorstep of the Japanese homeland. The great victory at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, northeast of Australia, had been epic for the Marine Corps. But the initial landing there in August of 1942, the largest in the Solomon Islands chain, had been largely unopposed. The landing on Tarawa would not be. III”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“a very strange and brilliant marine major named Earl “Pete” Ellis wrote a paper for the Marine Corps in which he said that Japan was the United States’ greatest enemy and the two would ultimately engage in war. He based his hypothesis on the tactical movements of Japan in the Pacific after World War I and on what he interpreted as its clear goals of expansion under the cloak of secrecy. He predicted with uncanny prescience that the initial strategy of a Japanese attack would be to destroy a great portion of the US fleet. He further predicted that the United States, in declaring war in retaliation, would adopt an island-hopping strategy across the Pacific, building up advance bases and airstrips until the Japanese homeland was close enough to be easily attacked. The only way to fend off the Japanese would be by adopting an amphibious assault doctrine as a new kind of military strategy. Ellis may have been the most brilliant marine in history and also the most tragic. Suspected to be bipolar and hospitalized several times for alcoholism, he never went above the rank of major because of his emotional instability. He died in 1923 at the age of forty-two on the Japanese-controlled island of Palau in the western Pacific while supposedly on a spy mission. No one knows quite how he died. But his amphibious assault theory, now considered one of the greatest”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“Navy ships, just like the men on board, had distinct personalities. Some ran like clockwork; others ran counterclockwise. Some were blessed, some were cursed. Some had swagger and wanted to be out front. Some were shy and only wanted to be in back. Some were easier to love than others. Some were mule stubborn. The McKean was a plodder, a four-stack destroyer built in 1919, what the crew called a “piddle-diddle.” As the Allies made their offensive up the Solomon Islands chain, the McKean was dependable and uncomplaining. But she was tired,”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“He was beloved because he was tough but also because he was decent.”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“Although there was no definitive proof, it was likely that General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of the Southwest Pacific War and the media darling of the war despite having fled the Philippines and leaving his men and the Filipinos to be decimated and tortured by the Japanese, was in the midst of it all. He held great sway with West Point, having graduated first in his class in 1903. Later as superintendent he made it a priority to increase the level of its sports programs. Given his popularity and pain-in-the-ass prickliness and flash-flood indignance when he perceived phantom insult and his presidential aspirations, the top command and administration were terrified of MacArthur,”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“draft dodgers. As John McLaughry put it, “It doesn’t seem right, all these apparently healthy football players being exempt, and many of these men out here eighteen and twenty months all worn down with malaria and still working like hell.”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II

“They are all but forgotten now, as all men in war are ultimately forgotten.”
― Buzz Bissinger, The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II