Rules about self

• You are NOT Superman.
• Ambition, attitude, and brains – two are required to be successful.
• Anything you do leaves you vulnerable – including doing nothing.
• Try to look unimportant, the enemy may be low on ammunition.
• Don’t look conspicuous, it draws enemy fire.
• Don’t draw enemy fire, it makes you quite unpopular with your unit.
• Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.
• Never share your foxhole with someone braver than you.

Rules about weapons

• Remember your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.
• Always aim towards the Enemy.
• If in doubt, empty your magazine.
• You have three seconds when lighting a five-second fuse.
• When the pin is pulled, the grenade is not your friend.

Rules about logistics:

• Things that must be together to work, can’t be shipped together.
• Batteries fail when there’s no other power source available.
• Radios fail when you desperately need fires support.
• Flashlights are tubular metal containers for storing dead batteries.
• The only time you can have too much fuel is when you’re on fire.
• If something hasn’t broken on your weapon, it’s about to.
• If you are short on everything except enemy, you are in combat.

Rules about tactics

• No plan survives initial contact intact.
• If it sounds stupid – but it works, it’s not stupid.
• If your attack is going well, you are walking into an ambush.
• It is generally inadvisable to eject into the area you just bombed.
• Any ship can be a minesweeper… once.
• If you see a bomb technician running, follow him.
• If one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane, you still have enough power to make it to the scene of the crash.
• Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your situation to a person on the ground incapable of doing anything about it.

Rules about fires

• The only thing more lethal than incoming fire, is incoming friendly fire.
• Incoming fire has the right-of-way.
• Tracer fire works both ways.
• Friendly fire isn’t.
• If the enemy is in range, so are you.

rules about strategy

• Professional soldiers are predictable – but the world is full of amateurs.
• If you are forward of your intended position, artillery will fall short.
• The diversion you are ignoring is really the main attack.
• The important things are always simple – the simple things are hard
• The easy path is mined.
• When both sides are convinced they are about to lose, they’re both right.
• If you take more than your fair share of objectives, you will have more than your fair share of objectives to take.

Finally:

• Once you win the battle, don’t forget to tell the enemy