20 Best Midway Quotes

Captain: [On the phone to his boss] They've taken the bait, Sir. It's Midway!

Captain: How much can you decipher?
Commander: Fifteen percent.
Captain: Really decipher?
Commander: Ten percent.
Captain: Ten percent? That's one word in ten, Joe! You're *guessing*!
Commander: [slightly hurt] We like to call it "analysis."

Lieutenant: [after telling his dad that he is marrying a Japanese girl] I need your help, Dad.
Captain: I guess you damn well do, Tiger.

Miss: Damn it, I'm an American! What makes us different from German-Americans or Italian-Americans?
Captain: Pearl Harbor... I guess.

[Nimitz has received the first reports on the Battle at Midway]
Admiral: Did you confirm it?
Lt. Jack Reid: Yes, sir. Admiral Fletcher's reply just came in. "Fletcher to Nimitz. Confirm previous report. Three enemy carriers afire".
Admiral: Hallelujah.
Lt. Comm. Rochefort: Three of their first-line carriers, Admiral. Isn't that worth at least a "hot diggity damn"?
Admiral: I'll take it under advisement, Joe, but there's still that fourth enemy carrier to deal with.
Lt. Jack Reid: There's also a message fron Captain Buckmaster, sir. The Yorktown's been hit.
Admiral: Badly?
Lt. Jack Reid: Yes, sir, but she is underway again... operational.
Lt. Comm. Rochefort: My gosh, our whole force may be in jeopardy if the Japanese located the Yorktown. They still got a tremendous fleet out there, Admiral.
Admiral: But that fourth carrier can't be far off.
Lt. Comm. Rochefort: We've already won a great victory, Admiral. Maybe we oughta get our people out of there.
Admiral: You mean... break off, run for home?
Lt. Comm. Rochefort: Before they can hurt us again. Yes, sir.
Admiral: Well, that might be the smart play, Commander. Trouble is, I *want* that fourth carrier.

Ensign: Red Fox Leader from Kit 3. Red Fox Leader from Kit 3. Skipper? Either my compass is all fouled up or we're not headed two-four-zero.
Lieutenant: There's nothing out there but empty ocean. I know where the Japs'll be, Mister Gay.
Ensign: Think you might let us in on it, sir?
Lieutenant: I figure they moved since we launched. East, heading out, away from Midway. OUT!
Ensign: Roger.
Huntington: What good's our orders if the skipper's gonna lead us off on his own? I don't like it, sir.
Ensign: Huntington, now you take it easy, y'hear? If anybody can find the Zekes, Waldron can. He's part Sioux Indian, for Christ's sake.

Admiral: [to Captain Garth after getting a briefing on the Coral Sea operation] We can't trade them carrier for carrier, Matt.

Captain: Listen, Carl; I understand my boy, Tom, is in your squadron. How's he doing?
Cmdr. Carl Jessop: Good, he's doing good. Good pilot. Good all around. I think his only problem would be... enemy identification. The boy's got to learn man: you do not win a war by kissing the enemy

Lt. Jack Reid: You okay?
[to Lieutenant Garth]
Lt. Jack Reid: Here.
[gives him a cigarette]
Pilot: [Gestures to the scout planes taking off] Those poor bastards are going to miss all the fun. There's nothin' north of us but empty ocean.
Lt. Jack Reid: [to Garth] He gets his dope straight from Tokyo Rose, right, Chili Bean?
Pilot: Wrong, caballo. I get from here!
[gestures to his head]
Pilot: When it frizzles, there's Japs around!

Captain: I read the FBI report on you and your parents.
Miss: Ask me anything you want to.
Captain: Okay. You're father was frequently seen coming and going from the Japanses consulat.
Miss: He has old friends there.
Captain: I see. And what about those Japanese patriotic organizations you belong to?
Miss: My father enrolled me in those when I was born! Out of respect for him, I never resigned. But I wasn't active!
Captain: [Nods] I see. And what about those magazines they found in your apartment?
Miss: The Prairie Shinburn? Published in Wyoming. My father had deep emotional ties to Japan, but even so, he thought it was a rediculous propaganda sheet.
Captain: Then why did he subscribe?
Miss: He's a traditional and honorable man. He was once indebtted to the man who publishes the Prairie Shinburn.

Captain: Admiral, these enemy radio intercepts that your intelligence unit has been accumulating...
Admiral: Very detailed, aren't they?
Captain: Too damned detailed, Admiral. Do you remember what happened just before December 7th?
Admiral: The Japanese flooded the airwaves with fake messages.
Captain: Yes. These could be carbon copies. Washington's convinced that Yamamoto's feeding this stuff to you in order to cover his real intentions.
Admiral: Very definite possibility.
Captain: Well then, sir, how can you still insist...
Admiral: Because it is my judgement that this information is factual. I'm convinced Yamamoto's target is Midway.
Captain: If you're wrong, Admiral, if you send our carriers into a Japanese ambush, the entire west coast and Hawaiian islands will be wide open for invasion.
Admiral: I'm fully aware of that, Captain. You're saying the safe play is to defend the home folks first.
Captain: With respects, Admiral, it's the smart play.
Admiral: Captain, if we surprise the enemy, catch him where he doesn't think we'll be, we can drive him back 3000 miles. And keep him pinned 'til we're ready to take him on his own front yard.
Captain: Sir, my instructions were to convey Washington's deep concern for the safety of the west coast and the Hawaiian islands. That is, if...
Admiral: Captain Maddox, is Washington ordering me to defend against an attack here or the west coast?
Captain: No, sir. My orders were simply to consult. No, sir, I have no such orders for you.
Admiral: Commander Blake, declare a state of fleet-opposed invasion. Target... Midway Island. Issue the order immediately.
Lieutenant Commander Ernest L. Blake: Aye, aye, sir.

RAdm. Raymond A. Spruance: If it's Midway, I'll *bushwhack* 'em!

Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto: [almost at the end] Leave that to me, I am the only one who must apologize to His Majesty.

Captain: [to his son, Tom, who he is having an argument with] You better shape up before some hotshot Jap pilot flames your ass!... You're being paid to fly planes, not sit in your room and cry over your girlfriends picture!

Admiral: [after the Japanese fleet has been sighted but before the battle begins] No matter what happens, Joe, I want you to know you've sure as hell earned your salary this month.
Commander: Thank you, sir.

RAdm. Tamon Yamaguchi: Once, we filled the sky with our aircraft. Now we win or lose with six fighters and ten torpedo planes.

Commander: [Last lines] I wonder if Matt knew how big we won.
Admiral: I think I know what he'd have said: It doesn't make any sense, Admiral. Yamamoto had everything going for him, power, experience, confidence. Were we better than the Japanese, or just luckier?

Adm. Chester W. Nimitz: [Is informed Admiral Halsey's been hospitalized] Damn. You know how much Bill Halsey hates hospitals.
Capt. Matt Garth: Maybe it's not that serious, sir.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz: If he's scheduled himself to go anywhere *near* one, it's not only damn serious, it's probably critical.
Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort: [Joins them] Admiral, I got some really bad news.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz: Well, today's the day for it.
Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort: The Japanese have changed their JN-25 code, that's the one that's been giving us Yamamoto's plans.
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz: How long will it take for you to unravel their new system?
Cmdr. Joseph Rochefort: A month, maybe two.
Capt. Matt Garth: Sir, do you still want that fleet order issued?
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz: ...Yes. Target: Midway.

Captain: Admiral, Commander Rochefort has something he would like to tell you.
Commander: It's about objective AF, sir, the meaning of AF. Now, our listening posts have been picking up alot of traffic between Yamamoto's staff commanders.
Captain: There has been a heavy volume of traffic, sir, with the recurring references to Objective AF and... what was the other one?
Commander: AO. Now, AO is still a mystery, Admiral, maybe a diverson, but I think we've identified Objective AF as Midway. Now, it really had us stymied there, until one of my men remembered an enemy intercept we decoded last March. Now, a Jap reconnaissance pilot radioed his base that he was passing close to AF. Now we plotted every possible course this plane might have taken, and the only appreciable land mass he could have overflown at the time was Midway.
Captain: Joe...
Commander: Look, I know it's thin...
Admiral: Thin? Damn near invisible.
Commander: But I found a way to confirm it, sir.
[Takes out a message and passes it to Nimitz]
Commander: If you will have this flown to Midway. It's a fake message, sir, reporting that Midway's fresh water condenser has broken down. Now, it should be transmitted in the clear, so there's no question of Japanese operators getting every word of it.
Admiral: [Smiles and nods, passing it over to Blake] Instruct Midway to include that in their housekeeping traffic tomorrow.
Lieutenant Commander Ernest L. Blake: Aye, sir.

Cmdr. Carl Jessop: "Wait and see." 1919, the Marines were practicing dive-bombing off of Hati, right? "Well, premature, better wait and see." Well, we waited and the Germans showed us in '37 in Madrid.
Navy: You mean like at Pearl Harbor, Commander?
Cmdr. Carl Jessop: Pearl Harbor? Shit, in '32 and '33, Jack O'Clark's squadrons proved that Pearl Harbor could be attacked successfully from the air, and Admiral Logan Ramsey said, predicted, it would happen, in detail.
Navy: And when was that?
Cmdr. Carl Jessop: 1937, pal. "Wait and see." We waited. December 7, we saw.