Memorial

I got drafted at 19

Me and a bunch of boys from home

January ’43, drove out to Pine Bluff and signed on

Went to basic south of Birmingham

Put me on west coast bound train

Spent three days out in San Diego

And they shipped me back east again

Left a port out of New York

Slept for months in British rain

Tore it up down in London town

And they shipped me back out again

The preacher said “Boys he who is killed tonight will dine with the Lord in Paradise”

One boy spoke up, said “preacher come on, eat your supper with us

Never talk about those first days

Lots of friends left behind

But I made it all the way across France

And I fought at the Maginot line

Road a tank into Belgium

Like them better than the French

Like my daddy, thirty years before

I did my time in a trench

Lots of days there’s no water

But the liquor kept me warm

The cellars were stocked to the ceiling with booze

So I carried a bottle with my gun

The preacher said “Boys he who is killed tonight will dine with the Lord in Paradise”

One boy spoke up, said “preacher come on, eat your supper with us”

Three times I made sergeant

I’m not that kind of man

And pretty much just as quick as I could

I get busted back to private again

Cause taken’ orders never suited me

Giving them out was much worse

I could not stand to get my friends killed

So I took care of myself first

Now I know that don’t sound right

Don’t think too bad of me

Now it keeps me up nights

What I could have done differently

The preacher said “Boys he who is killed tonight will dine with the Lord in Paradise.”

One boy spoke up, said “preacher come on, eat your supper with us”

I’d be no guest at the table of the Lord

His food was not to be mine

‘Cause I cursed His name every chance that I could

And I recon that’s why I’m still alive