One mornin' at breakfast I said to my wife
We've been everywhere once and some places twice
As I had another helpin' of country ham
she said "We haven't never been to Vietnam
there's a bunch of our boys over there"
So we went
Well we got a big welcome when we drove in
Through the gates of a placed named Long Ben
We checked in and everything got kinda quite
But a soldier boy said "Just wait til' tonight
Things get noisy things start happening'
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
Then we crawled into bed for some peace and quite
But things weren't peaceful things weren't quite
Things were scary
Well for a few minutes June hadn't spoken a word
Then I thought at first 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 "John I'm scared" I said "Me too"
Well all night long that noise kept on
And the noise would chill you right to the bone
The bullets and the shells and the atomic bombs
shook our bed and finally fell and it never let up
It was gonna get worse before it got any better
Well, the sun came up the noise died down
We got a few minutes sleep and we were sleepin' sound
Then a soldier knocked on the door and said
"Last night we brought in seven dead and fourteen wounded!"
We were goin' down to the base hospital
To see the boys Yeah
So we to the hospital day by day
And of the night we were singin' away
Then the shells and the bombs again til' dawn
And the helicopter brought in a wounded man
night after night day after day
comin' and a goin'
So we sadly sang for them our last song
And reluctantly we said so long
We did our best to let them know that we cared
for every last one of them over there
Whether we belonged over there or not ê
somebody loves them and needs them
Well now that's about all there is to tell
about our little trip and the livin' hell
and if I ever go back over there again
I hope there's none of our boys to sing for
I hope this ol' war's over with and they're all back home
To stay in peace
