With willing hearts and skillful hands, the difficult we do at once; the impossible takes a bit longer.
¶ Inscription, Seabees (U.S. Naval Construction Batallions) Memorial, Arlington Cemetery.
The US Army Corps of Engineers motto during WW II was “The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a little longer.” Other branches used it as well; Newsweek (8 Mar 1943) attributed it to the Army Air Forces and the NY Times (4 Nov 1945) attributed “The impossible we do at once; the miraculous takes a little longer” to the Army Service Forces.
