Text in SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND

The letter that Nathan West gives to his girl-friend Kylen Celina, just before she leaves for the Tellus mission without him (Written by Glen Morgan and James Wong):

"Five billion years from now, maybe to the day,
the sun burns ninety percent of its hydrogen. A balance is destroyed.
More energy is created than released. Quickly, in a few million years,
the sun radiates all of its potential power. The star swells. Mercury, Venus,
the Earth... disappear. Swallowed. The sun truly, finally, touches the
sky. Life vanishes eons ago.

"Eventually, the sun shrinks, decreasing to the size of the Earth,
which reappears from the Red Dwarf's grasp. With no gravity to hold
it, the Earth slowly floats away.

"Elsewhere, stars are born. Other star systems - older, larger -
continue to breathe. The solar system dies of crib death. If that's
what it takes, then okay. If I must wait that long, then all right.
Because when I think of this, nothing is more desirable than the
hope of watching that last day when the sun flickers out, with you
beside me. We'll sit alone on a dark chunk of ice at the top of the
world, and the stars above, beyond and between us will never shine
brighter as we drift away into space."

Vasen quotes a poem to Wang when they are sitting in the turret room of the MacArthur. That poem is "When You Are Old" by William Butler Yeats:

"When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love, false or true?
But one man loved the pilgrim's soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars."

The 58th quote an old Marine song when they are moving through the mine field:

Born in the woods
Raised by the bear
Double-set of dogteeth
Triple coat of hair

M - Mean as hell
A - All the time
R - Rough and Tough
I - In the mud
N - Never quit
E - Every day
S - Semper Fi!

On screen quote at the beginning of the episode:

"Tell my mother I died for my country.
I did what I thought was best."

John Wilkes Booth
April 12, 1865

Just before heading out on their mission, McQueen reads a poem. It is from Thunder Gods : The Kamikaze Pilots Tell Their Story by Hatsuho Naito (SEE: ASIN: 0440204984 - Amazon.com)

"With my mission now at hand, my dear old town, my dear old people,
I now abandon everything and leave to protect this country.
To preserve our eternal and just cause, I now go forth.
My body will collapse like a falling cherry blossom
but my soul will live and protect this land forever.
Farewell. I am a glorious wild cherry blossom.
I shall return to my mother's place and bloom."
- Mayumi Ichikawa.

When Wang opens his gift, he reads from a small black book. It is William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The lines he reads are from Act III, scene 2:

"And when I shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun."

McQueen recites from The Iliad preparing to go into a dogfight with Chiggy von Richthofen.

The [ ]'s indicate sections left out, the { }'s indicate added sections from the script writer:

The Illiad by Homer
Translation by Richmond Lattimore
Song 21; Page 442, Lines 260-273

"Then looking darkly [at him] {upon Hector} swift-footed Achilleus answered: '[Hektor, argue me no arguments.] I cannot forgive you. As there are no trustworthy oaths between men and lions, [nor wolves and lambs have spirit that can be brought to agreement but forever hold feelings of hate for each otherm] so there can be no love between your and me, [nor shall there be oaths betweens us, but] one or the other must fall before then to glut with his blood Ares the god who fights under the shields's guard. Remember every valour of yours, for now the need comes hardest upon you to be a spearmen and a bold warrior. There shall be no more escape for you[, but Pallas Athene will kill you soon by my spear]. You will pay in a lump for all those sorrows of my companions you killed in your spear's fury."

Quote on screen at beginning of the episode. It was from Chapter 3 of (as it says) "the Red Badge of Courage," a novel taking place in the American Civil War:

"The youth had been taught
that a man became another
thing in battle. He saw his
salvation in such a change."

Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage

Dedication at beginning of the episode:

For Our Fathers
And Grandfathers
At Guadalcanal

August 7, 1942
Febuary 7, 1943

The titles of the last two episodes were taken from an old Airborne School running cadence:

C-130 rollin' down the strip,
64 troopers on a one-way trip.
Mission top secret, destination unknown,
We don't know if we're ever comin' home.

Stand up, hook up, shuffle to the door,
Jump on out and count to four.
If my main don't open wide,
I pack a reserve by my side.

If that one should fail me too,
Look out ground, I'm a comin' through!

If I die on the old drop zone,
Box me up and ship me home.
As they lay me down to rest,
Tell my mom I did my best.
Give all my jump pay to my wife,
So she'll be happy for the rest of her life.
Tell my little baby not to cry,
'Cause her daddy was a paratrooper when he died.