"Gentlemen, Be Seated" is a science fiction short story by American writer Robert A. Heinlein.
It was later included in two of Heinlein's collections, The Green Hills of Earth (1951), and The Past Through Tomorrow (1967).
The title of the story derives from the way they plug an air leak while awaiting rescue: by sitting on it.
It was also, at the time the story was written and while Heinlein attended, the opening line for all classes at the military and naval academies (as well as classes for officers at the various service schools) in the United States.
The story might have been inspired by an episode in "Baron Munchausen": The ship sprung a leak.