I
do not intend making any speech to you.
"We are all ex-fighters. Life, once filled with daring and adventure,
has become stale, flat, and unprofitable. The dull routine of business
and of social life is Dead Sea fruit to our lips--dust and ashes. It
cannot hold or entertain us.
"By this I do not mean that war is good, or peace bad. For the vast
majority of men, peace is normal and right. But there must be always
a small minority that cannot tolerate ennui; that must seek risks and
daring exploits; that would rather lay down their lives, today, in
some man-sized exploit, than live twenty-five years longer in the dull
security of a humdrum rut.
"Such men have always existed and probably always will. We are all,
I believe, of that type. Therefore you will all understand me. I will
understand you. And each of you will understand the rest.
"Major Bohannan and I have chosen you and have invited you here
because we believe every man in this room is precisely the kind of
man I have been defining. We believe you are like ourselves, dying
of boredom, eager for adventure; and willing to undergo military
discipline, swear secrecy, pledge honor and risk life itself, provided
the adventure be daring enough, the reward promising enough.
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