Dress Blues

What can you see from your window?

I can't see anythin' from mine

Flags on the side of the highway

And scripture on grocery store signs

Maybe eighteen was too early

Maybe thirty or forty is too

Did you get your chance to make peace with the man

Before He sent down his angels for you?

Mamas and grand mamas love you

'Cause that's all they know how to do

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

Or sleepin' in your dress blues

Your wife said this all would be funny

When you got back home in a week

Turn twenty two and we'd celebrate you

In a bar or a tent by the creek

Your baby would just about be here

And your very last tour would be up

But you won't be back, they're all dressin' in black

Drinkin' sweet tea in Styrofoam cups

Mamas and grand mamas love you

American boys hate to lose

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

Or sleepin' in your dress blues

The high school gymnasium's ready

Full of flowers and old Legionnaires

Nobody showed up to protest

Just sniffle and stare

There's red, white and blue in the rafters

And there's silent old men from the Corps

What did they say when they shipped you away

To fight somebody's Hollywood war?

Nobody here could forget you

You showed us what we had to lose

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

Or sleepin' in your dress blues

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

Or sleepin' in your dress blues