Capo 3rd fret

Standard (EADGBE)

Intro

 One mornin' at breakfast I said to my wife,

 "We've been ev'rywhere once and some places twice."

As I had another helping of country ham, she said,

"We ain't never been to Vietnam,

 And there's a bunch of our boys over there."

 So we went to the Orient, Saigon.

 Well, we got a big welcome when we drove in

 To the gates of a place that they call Long Ben.

 We checked in and ev'rything got kind of quiet.

 But a soldier boy said, "Just wait till tonight.

 Things get noisy, things start happenin'.

 Big, bad firecrackers."

 Well, that night we did about four shows for the boys

 And they were livin' it up with a whole lot of noise.

 We did our last song for the night

 And we crawled into bed for some peace and quiet.

 But things weren't peaceful and things weren't quiet.

 Things were scary.

 Well, for a few minutes, June never said one word,

 And I thought at first that she hadn't heard.

 Then a shell exploded not two miles away.

 She sat up in bed and I heard her say,

 "What was that?" I said, "That was a shell or a bomb."

 She said, "I'm scared." I said, "Me too".

 Well, all night long that noise kept on,

 And the sound would chill you right to the bone.

 The bullets and the bombs and the mortar shells

Shook our bed ev'ry time one fell and it never let up.

 It was gonna get worse before it got any better.

 Well, when the sun came up, the noise died down.

 We got a few minutes sleep and we were sleepin' sound.

 Then a soldier knocked on our door and said,

 Last night they brought in 7 dead and 14 wounded.

 And would we come down to the base hospital and see the boys. Yeah.

 So, we went to the hospital ward by day

And ev'ry night we were singin' away.

 Then the shells and the bombs till dawn again,

 And the helicopters brought in the wounded men.

Night after night, day after day, comin' and goin'.

 So, we sadly sang for them our last song

And reluctantly we said, "So long."

 We did our best to let 'em know that we care

 For ev'ry last one of 'em that's over there.

 Wether we belong over there or not,

 Somebody over here loves 'em and needs 'em.

 Well, now, that's about all that there is to tell

 About that little trip into livin' hell.

 And if I ever go back over there anymore,

 I hope there's none of our boys there for me to sing for.

 I hope that war is over with

 And they all come back home to stay in peace.