Things you should always remember .

[THE J]

MURPHY'S LAWS OF COMBAT:
0.You are not supermen. (Freshly graduated recruits from Marine boot camp and all fighter pilots, especially take note.)
1.Suppressive fires - won't.
2.If it's stupid but works, it isn't stupid.
3.Don't look conspicuous - it draws fire. (For this reason aircraft carriers have been dubbed bomb magnets.)
4.When in doubt, empty the magazine.
5.Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than you.
6.Never forget that your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.
7.If your attack is going really well, it's an ambush.
8.No plan survives the first contact intact.
9.All five second grenade fuses will burn down in three seconds.
10.Try to look unimportant, because the bad guys may be low on ammo. (Trivia devotees will recall the sudden dissapearance of rank and distinctive caps on the uniforms worn by Soviet officers in Afghanistan.)
11.If you are forward of your position, the artillerry will fall short.
12.When you have secured an area, don't forget to tell the enemy.
13.Incoming fire has the right-of-way.
14.The enemy diversion you are ignoring is the main attack.
15.The important things are always simple.
16.The simple things are always hard.
17.The easy way is always mined.
18.If you are short of everything except enemy, you are in combat.
19.No combat ready unit has ever passed inspection. (Note: No Marine unit has ever failed a combat-readiness inspection, which suggests peacetime inspections are to readiness as messhall food is to cuisine.)
20.If the enemy is in range, SO ARE YOU!
21.Beer math is 2 beers times 37 men equals 49 cases.
22.Body-count math is 3 guerrillas plus 1 probable plus 2 pigs equals 37 enemy killed in action.
23.Freindly fire - isn't.
24.Things that must be together to work usually can't be shipped together.
25.Radios will fail as soon as you need fire support desperately. (Corollary: Radar tends to fail at night and in bad weather, and especially during both.)
26.Anything you do can get you shot - including doing nothing.
27.Make it too tough for the enemy to get in, and you can't get out.
28.Tracers work BOTH ways.
29.The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming freindly fire.
30.If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will have more than your fair share to take.
31.When both sides are convinced they are about to lose, they are both right.
32.Cancian's Dictum: The side with the simplest uniforms wins.
33.Professional soldiers are predictable, but the world is full of amateurs.

[fourganger88]

Similar stuff.


1. If the enemy is in range, so are you.
2. Incoming fire has the right of way.
3. Don't look conspicuous, it draws fire.
4. There is always a way, and it usually doesn't work.
5. The problem with the easy way out is that it has already been mined.
6. Try to look unimportant, they may be low on ammo.
7. Professionals are predictable, it's the amateurs that are dangerous.
8. The enemy invariably attacks on two occasions:
9. when you're ready for them.
10. when you're not ready for them.
11.Teamwork is essential, it gives them someone else to shoot at.
12. If you can't remember, then the claymore IS pointed at you.
13. The enemy diversion you have been ignoring will be the main attack.
14. A "sucking chest wound" is nature's way of telling you to slow down.
15. If your attack is going well, then it's an ambush.
16. Never draw fire, it irritates everyone around you.
17. Anything you do can get you shot, including nothing.
18. If you build yourself a bunker that's tough for the enemy to get into 19. quickly, then you won't be able to get out of it quickly either.
20. Never share a foxhole with anyone braver than yourself.
21. If you're short of everything but the enemy, you're in a combat zone.
22. When you've secured the area, don't forget to tell the enemy.
23. Never forget that your weapon is made by the lowest bidder.
24. Friendly fire isn't.
25. If the sergeant can see you, so can the enemy.
26. Never stand when you can sit, never sit when you can lie down, never stay awake when you can sleep.
27. The most dangerous thing in the world is a second lieutenant with a map and a compass.
28. There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.
29. A grenade with a seven second fuse will always burn down in four seconds.
30. Remember, a retreating enemy is probably just falling back and regrouping.
31. If at first you don't succeed call in an air-strike.
32. Exceptions prove the rule, and destroy the battle plan.
33. Everything always works in your HQ, everything always fails in the colonel's HQ.
34. The enemy never watches until you make a mistake.
35. One enemy soldier is never enough, but two is entirely too many.
36. A clean (and dry) set of BDU's is a magnet for mud and rain.
37. Whenever you have plenty of ammo, you never miss. Whenever you are low on ammo, you can't hit the broad side of a barn.
38. The more a weapon costs, the farther you will have to send it away to be repaired.
39. Field experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
40. Interchangeable parts aren't.
41. No matter which way you have to march, its always uphill.
42. If enough data is collected, a board of inquiry can prove ANYTHING.
43. For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism. (in boot camp)
44. The one item you need is always in short supply.
45. The worse the weather, the more you are required to be out in it.
46. The complexity of a weapon is inversely proportional to the IQ of the weapon's operator.
47. Airstrikes always overshoot the target, artillery always falls short.
48. When reviewing the radio frequencies that you just wrote down, the most important ones are always illegible.
49. Those who hesitate under fire usually do not end up KIA or WIA.
50. The tough part about being an officer is that the troops don't know what they want, but they know for certain what they DON'T want.
51. To steal information from a person is called plagiarism. To steal information from the enemy is called gathering intelligence.
52. The weapon that usually jams when you need it the most is the M60.
53. The perfect officer for the job will transfer in the day after that billet is filled by someone else.
54. When you have sufficient supplies & ammo, the enemy takes 2 weeks to attack. When you are low on supplies & ammo the enemy decides to attack that night.
55. The newest and least experienced soldier will usually win the Congressional Medal Of Honor.
56. A Purple Heart just goes to prove that were you smart enough to think of a plan, stupid enough to try it, and lucky enough to survive.


My personal favourite is the famous quote-
"It's not the bullet with your name on it you have to worry about. It's the twenty-thousand-odd other bullets labeled "Occupant"".