John D. Bulkeley Quotes

John Duncan Bulkeley was a vice admiral in the United States Navy and was one of its most decorated naval officers. Bulkeley received the Medal of Honor for actions in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He was also the PT boat skipper who evacuated General Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor in the Philippines and commanded at the Battle of La Ciotat.

Bulkeley's PT-boat heroics in defending the Philippines from Japanese invasion in 1941-1942 was the subject of the novel "They Were Expendable" by William Lindsay White in 1942, which was turned into the big screen epic They Were Expendable three years later by director John Ford, starring John Wayne, with Robert Montgomery playing a somewhat fictionalized Bulkeley role.

The United States Navy named an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer after him: USS Bulkeley , commissioned in 2001.



Wikipedia  

✵ 19. August 1911 – 6. April 1996
John D. Bulkeley photo
John D. Bulkeley: 4   quotes 0   likes

Famous John D. Bulkeley Quotes

“What else could I do? You engage, you fight, you win. That is the reputation of our Navy, then and in the future.”

Source: As quoted in 1944, "Namesake USS Bulkeley (DDG 84) https://www.surflant.usff.navy.mil/Organization/Operational-Forces/Destroyers/USS-Bulkeley-DDG-84/About-Us/Namesake/

“When you run into the enemy, you’ve got to attack, no question about it.”

Source: "‘Sea Wolf’ Bulkeley’s European Theater Exploits Heroic" in Naval History" https://www.navalhistory.org/2015/03/19/sea-wolf-bulkeleys-european-theater-exploits-heroic (1944)

“As far as the Breakout is that...Breakout, itself is concerned, it was dark, and it was a rather rainy, misty night. We went at high speed, ran through the mine fields, which we knew like the palm of our hands...no problem at all.”

Recalling his experiences in evacuating General Douglas MacArthur from Corregidor during the 1941 Japanese invasion of the Philippines
Source: "Better have the books corrected." https://corregidor.org/chs_mac/bulkeley.htm (1987)

“I don't know what a hero is. This business of the captain taking all the credit, ordering someone else and so forth -- that's not it. The men who do the actual fighting, man the guns, they're the guys that really win the war.”

Source: "Vice Adm. John D. Bulkeley, 84, Hero of D-Day and Philippines" in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/08/us/vice-adm-john-d-bulkeley-84-hero-of-d-day-and-philippines.html (8 April 1996)

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