I was amazed by the swiftness of their response, even though I knew that these were all battle-tested veterans.

But all of Felix's men were battle-tested veterans by now, volunteers since their earliest days in the SEALs; superb team players, they were also fiercely competitive.

This version of Ironhide is described as being a battle-tested veteran with heavy armored plating.

Their last foray had been a crucible to harden them into battle-tested veterans.

His friends were battle-tested veterans.

And should the Giants get off to a rough start there are few battle-tested veterans who might be able to help restore calm and pull the team out of a tailspin.

The pressure of the championship round, especially, is supposed to be for battle-tested veterans with years of experience.

Instead of endurance and impregnability, he demanded adaptability and speed, off-loading battle-tested veterans in favor of untried youngsters like the fabulously named midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger.

He went down into his harder-than-iron other self, the battle-tested veteran of a thousand struggles from which only he had emerged.

Besides, there were threats that might paralyze even a battle-tested veteran.