These Air Force quotes will inspire you. Air Force is a branch of the armed forces concerned with fighting or defense in the air.
A collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging Air Force quotes, Air Force sayings, and Air Force proverbs.
Best Air Force Quotes
- “Airpower alone does not guarantee America’s security, but I believe it best exploits the nation’s greatest asset – our technical skill.” ~ Hoyt Vandenberg
- “All that I am … I owe to the Air Force.” ~ Chuck Yeager
- “Not to have an adequate air force in the present state of the world is to compromise the foundations of national freedom and independence.” ~ Winston Churchill
-
“A terrorist is someone who has a bomb, but doesn’t have an air force.” ~ William Blum
- “In order to assure an adequate national defense, it is necessary – and sufficient – to be in a position in case of war to conquer the command of the air.” ~ Giulio Douhet
- “That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.” ~ Johnny Cash
- “The power of an air force is terrific when there is nothing to oppose it.” ~ Winston Churchill
-
“Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers? Have the people we’ve been bombing over the years been complaining?” ~ George C. Wallace
- “The mail service has been excellent out here, and in my opinion, this is all that the Air Force has accomplished during the war.” ~ Chesty Puller
- “Only air power can defeat air power. The actual elimination or even stalemating of an attacking air force can be achieved only by a superior air force.” ~ Alexander P. de Seversky
- “The Navy can lose us the war, but only the Air Force can win it. The fighters are our salvation, but the bombers alone provide the means of victory.” ~ Winston Churchill
-
“Our warriors are no longer limited to the people who fly the airplanes…Our entire force is a warrior force. Being a warrior is not an AFSC, …it’s a condition of the heart.” ~ John P. Jumper
- “The most important thing in fighting was shooting, next the various tactics in coming into a fight, and last of all flying ability itself.” ~ Billy Bishop
- “Air forces offered the possibility of striking a the enemy’s economic and moral centers without having first to achieve ‘the destruction of the enemy’s main forces on the battlefield’. Air-power might attain a direct end by indirect means – hopping over opposition instead of overthrowing it.” ~ B. H. Liddell Hart
- “The enduring responsibility of the United States Air Force is to provide strategic deterrence for the Nation and fly, fight and win as an integral part of the Joint Team. Together with our brothers and sisters in arms, we underwrite the national strategy of defending the Homeland and assuring allies, while dissuading, deterring and defeating enemies.” ~ Norton A. Schwartz
-
“A modern, autonomous, and thoroughly trained Air Force in being at all times will not alone be sufficient, but without it there can be no national security.” ~ Henry H. Arnold
- “If our airforces are never used, they have achieved their finest goal.” ~ Nathan Farragut Twining
- “Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings… And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod, The high, untrespassed sanctity of space, – Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.” ~ John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
- “I recently learned something quite interesting about video games. Many young people have developed incredible hand, eye, and brain coordination in playing these games. The air force believes these kids will be our outstanding pilots should they fly our jets.” ~ Ronald Reagan
-
“Not now, or not there, or too much, or not at all.” ~ Lyndon B. Johnson
- “I flew on Air Force Two for eight years, and now I have to take off my shoes to get on an aeroplane.” ~ Al Gore
- “There are some who’ve forgotten why we have a military. It’s not to promote war. It’s to be prepared for peace. There’s a sign over the entrance to the Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington state, and that sign says it all: ‘Peace is our profession’.” ~ Ronald Reagan
- “I went to the University of Washington as a physics and astronomy major. My other interest, of course, was aviation. I always wanted to be a pilot. And if you’re going to fly airplanes, the best place to be is the Air Force.” ~ Michael P. Anderson
-
“It will be a great day when our schools have all the money they need, and our air force has to have a bake-sale to buy a bomber.” ~ Robert Fulghum
- “If you want something that’s going to provide you with a lot of challenges and a variety of different things to do, then you really can’t beat a place like the Air Force. I don’t mean this to sound like a recruiting pitch. But it’s been a lot of fun.” ~ Michael P. Anderson
- “During the air war of 1944, a four-man combat crew on a B-17 bomber took a vow to never abandon one another no matter how desperate the situation. The aircraft was hit by flak during a mission and went into a terminal dive, and the pilot ordered everyone to bail out. The top turret gunner obeyed the order, but the ball turret gunner discovered that a piece of flak had jammed his turret and he could not get out. The other three men in his pact could have bailed out with the parachutes, but they stayed with him until the plan hit the ground and exploded. They all died.” ~ Sebastian Junger
- “But the Air Force was sort of a bastard child of the Army, much like the Marines with the Navy. Everything had to be done over by the Army after it had already been done by the Air Corps, a mess.” ~ Stuart Symington
-
“The Air Force comes in every morning and says, ‘Bomb, bomb, bomb’ … And then the State Department comes in and says, ‘Not now, or not there, or too much, or not at all.'” ~ Lyndon B. Johnson
- “I joined the air force. I took to it immediately when I arrived there. I did three years, eight months, and ten days in all, but it took me a year and a half to get disabused of my romantic notions about it.” ~ Morgan Freeman
- “And then, when I thought about joining the Air Force, flying seemed like a natural extension of the motorcycling experience. You’re going faster, higher. You’re operating a machine that’s a lot more powerful than you are.” ~ Duane G. Carey
- “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan… We will gain the inevitable triumph so help us, God.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
-
“Air Force interceptors still pursue Unidentified Flying Objects as a matter of national security to this country and to determine technical aspects involved.” ~ Joe W. Kelly
- “The Air Force had put out a secret order for its pilots to capture UFOs. For the last six months, we have been working with a congressional committee for investigating official secrecy concerning proof that UFOs are real machines under intelligent.” ~ Donald Keyhoe
- “Never again will I allow our political self-interest to deter us from doing what we know to be morally right. Atrocity and terror are not political weapons. And to those who would use them, your day is over. We will never negotiate. We will no longer tolerate and we will no longer be afraid. It’s your turn to be afraid.” ~ Harrison Ford
- “Desert Storm was a war which involved the massive use of airpower and a victory achieved by the U.S. and multinational air force units. It was also the first war in history in which airpower was used to defeat ground forces.” ~ Merrill McPeak
-
“I worked there [on Pontiac] three weeks, got really sick of it, went back home and joined the Air Force.” ~ Johnny Cash
- “Israel uses sophisticated attack jets and naval vessels to bomb densely-crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques, and slums to attack a population that has no air force, no air defense, no navy, no heavy weapons, no artillery units, no mechanized armor, no command in control, no army and calls it a war.” ~ Noam Chomsky
- “This car is more fun than the entire French air force crashing into a firework factory.” ~ Jeremy Clarkson
- “I was the first Navy, Marine or Air Force person who had been an astronaut to return back to the Air Force. I had certain expectations about what would be a reasonable and desirable position to be assigned to after my years of service.” ~ Buzz Aldrin
-
“When Donald Trump becomes president, he’ll fly on a jumbo jet rebadged Hair Force One. It will be oversized to contain his massive ego, and will have all the latest and greatest blowdryer technology.” ~ Michael R. Burch
- “The people designing the weapons literally often didn’t know how they were being handled in the field by the Air Force – and a lot of people in the Air Force didn’t understand some of the dangers. There’s a very strong element of madness in this.” ~ Eric Schlosser
- “I feel that the Air Force has not been giving out all the available information on the Unidentified Flying Objects. You cannot disregard so many unimpeachable sources.” ~ John William McCormack
- “When the invasion began, the British public was called upon to ‘support’ troops sent illegally and undemocratically to kill people with whom we had no quarrel. ‘The ultimate test of our professionalism’ is how Commander McKendrick describes an unprovoked attack on a nation with no submarines, no navy and no air force, and now with no clean water and no electricity and, in many hospitals, no anesthetic with which to amputate small limbs shredded by shrapnel. I have seen elsewhere how this is done, with a gag in the patient’s mouth.” ~ John Pilger
-
“I’ve traveled a huge amount, but almost all of it has been through work. I spent five years stationed in London in the special services of the American Air Force, producing and directing shows for the troops, which I absolutely loved.” ~ Larry Hagman
- “Over the past eighteen years, I have acted as a scientific consultant to the U.S. Air Force on the subject of unidentified flying objects – UFO’s. As a consequence of my work on the voluminous air force files and, to a greater extent, of personal investigation of many puzzling cases and interviews with witnesses of good repute, I have long been aware that the subject of UFO’s could not be dismissed as mere nonsense.” ~ J. Allen Hynek
- “December 7, 1941. A date which will live in infamy.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “I’m an Air Force officer first, a pilot second and then Nicole. The female part is last. . . . My job is to be the best right wingman that I can be.” ~ Nicole Malachowski
-
“I will not wage war against women and children! I have instructed my air force to limit their attacks to military objectives. However, if the enemy should conclude from this that he might get away with waging war in a different manner he will receive an answer that he’ll be knocked out of his wits!” ~ Adolf Hitler
- “My husband is a former Air Force pilot and my son is an active-duty Army surgeon, recently returned from Iraq, so my pride in our military is passionate… and personal.” ~ Robyn Carr
- “By the end of this decade, a majority of our Navy and Air Force fleets will be based out of the Pacific, because the United States is and always will be a Pacific power.” ~ Barack Obama
- “Bill Clinton sitting on Air Force One getting his hair cut while people around the country cooled their heels and waited for him, became a metaphor for a populist president who had gotten drunk with the perks of his own power and was sort of, you know, not sensitive to what people wanted.” ~ Dee Dee Myers
-
“But it wasn’t until I graduated from Texas A & M University and joined the United States Air Force, flying C-130’s all around the globe, that I truly appreciated the blessings of freedom.” ~ Rick Perry
- “My husband was an Air Force pilot man years ago and recently an Air Force wife thanked me for my service! I laughed and said, ‘No, I wasn’t in the Air Force, my husband was!’ And she smiled and said, ‘If he served, you served. And thank you.'” ~ Robyn Carr
- “The guidelines say all the right things, … They address all the issues that were raised as problems at the Air Force Academy. The major question is, how will be they become a reality A lot of the people implementing this are the people who violated it.” ~ Abraham Foxman
- “It is true that I was denied access to a facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, because I never got in. I can’t tell you what was inside. We both know about the rumors concerning a captured UFO and crew members. I have never seen what I would call a UFO, but I have intelligent friends who have.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“I went to a military school between the ages of six and 12 and later into the air force. You learn discipline and strength of character.” ~ Larry Hagman
- “I got a letter from 13-year-old Ryan from Belfast. Now, Ryan, if you’re out in the crowd tonight, here’s the answer to your question. No, as far as I know, an alien spacecraft did not crash in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. And, Ryan, if the United States Air Force did recover alien bodies, they didn’t tell me about it, either, and I want to know.” ~ William J. Clinton
- “Our national defense will be consolidated and no imperialist will be allowed to invade our territory again. Our People’s armed forces must be maintained and developed with the brave and steeled People’s Liberation Army as their foundation. We will have not only a powerful army but also a powerful air force and a powerful navy.” ~ Mao Zedong
- “Those who served, and those who continue to serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard took an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and we can never forget the importance of their commitment to our Nation.” ~ Robin Hayes
-
“I have to say that flying on Air Force One sort of spoils you for coach on a regular airline.” ~ Ron Reagan
- “During a trip to Iraq last fall, I visited our theater hospital at Balad Air Force Base and witnessed these skilled medical professionals in action and met the brave soldiers whose lives they saved.” ~ Melissa Bean
- “This cannot be the United States being the air force for Shia militias or a Shia on Sunni Arab fight.” ~ David Petraeus
- “There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself.” ~ Daniel Inouye
- “In view of the result of attained at the Washington Treaty which, my advisors believe, guarantee peace in the Pacific for some time to come, it is proposed to reduce the establishment of the navy and army, and postpone the expansion of the air force.” ~ Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster
An air force is the part of a country’s armed forces that is concerned with fighting in the air.
