"If I had dinner plans and I happen to be scrolling through the television channels and this is on, I’m gonna be late for dinner. I just can’t take my eyes off this movie. I was at the Kubrick exhibit at the LA County Museum of Art, and it was incredible to see the production details on this–the script, and what the bomb looked like, and the props. And that’s another movie that just was so far ahead of its time, and effortlessly combined humor and horror. In such a profound level the subject was terrifying and real, and prescient to the Cold War at that time. That absurdity of war and the military, it’s just still so great and hilarious and terrifying."

"Being a military historian, I was really blown away by the depiction that [Stanley] Kubrick had of trench life. But more importantly, I was immersed in the moral quagmire that Col. Dax, played by Kirk Douglass, experienced in the film. There’s a moment when somebody looks down at a cockroach and says, “You see that cockroach?” He says something like, “In an hour, he’ll have more relevance than I do.” And [another character] steps on the cockroach and says, “Not anymore.” Also, it was a very revolutionary shooting style that Kubrick presented, with his long tracking shots and his use of close-up wide lenses that I found very attractive. I first saw that film when I was a cadet at West Point."

"I stole that from my brother. I was like, ‘What is this?’ I was in seventh grade or eighth grade and it was another album where it kind of takes you somewhere. You are like, This isn’t human. This was just dropped by a spaceship and it’s not a person singing this song or creating these beats. This is just a space alien.’ Portishead’s production is just insane beats you would expect to be on a KRS-One album. But then there's this little white girl with an angel voice singing over it. It was a cool juxtaposition. I like ‘It’s A Fire.’ That’s a chill song with kind of a military drum thing going on, like a drummer boy."