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Edwin Layton: Pearl Harbor is the greatest intelligence failure in American history.
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Dick Best: [repeated line, as he attempts to land on a carrier] Hang in there kid, we're almost home.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt: It is a day which will live in infamy.
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Dick Best: [shouting at the staff car] Hey, Nimitz ! when are you going to let us hit those Japs ?
Staff Officer (Nimitz): [embarrassed] I'm sorry, Sir. Shall I get their names ?
Chester W. Nimitz: No. It's good to know at least some of the men still want to fight.
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Edwin Layton: Washington is starting from a false assumption, and looking for evidence to support it.
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William Brockman: I'm not going to waste a torpedo on a cruiser, where are the carriers ?
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Wade McClusky: Men like Dick Best are the reason we're going to win this war.
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Clarence Dickinson: What are Army planes doing on a carrier ?
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James Murray: What if we get shot down ?
Dick Best: I'm not going to end up as a POW, and neither are you.
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William 'Bull' Halsey: That's the bravest damn thing I think I've ever seen.
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Bruno Gaido: [to his Japanese captors, last line] You know, I had a lot of friends in Pearl Harbour... so how's about you go fuck yourself?
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Isoroku Yamamoto: We have awaken a sleeping giant
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Bill Miller: Pearl is under attack. This is no shit.
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Raymond Spruance: Layton, how reliable are these estimates of the Japanese positions?
Edwin Layton: They represent our best guess based on the intelligence that we have.
Raymond Spruance: I can't plan around your guess.
Chester W. Nimitz: [to Layton] I understand that we're asking the impossible but we need you to be specific.
Edwin Layton: [sighs, pauses a moment] The Japanese will attack on the morning of June 4th from the northwest at a bearing of 325 degrees. They will be sighted 175 miles from Midway at 0700 local time.
Chester W. Nimitz: I trust Layton and his team. Make your plans accordingly.
Chester W. Nimitz: [later, on the morning of June 4th, after receiving the report the enemy fleet was spotted on a bearing of 320 degrees and 180 miles northwest of Midway and glancing at his watch] Well, Layton, you and Rochefort were only off five minutes, five miles and five degrees.
Edwin Layton: Well, we'll endeavor to do better next time, sir.
Midway Quotes
Extended Reading
