Goodnight Saigon

We met as soul mates on Parris Island We left as inmates from an asylum And we were sharp as sharp as knives And we were so gung ho to lay down our lives We came in spastic like tameless horses We left in plastic as numbered corpses And we learned fast to travel light Our arms were heavy but our bellies were tight We had no home front we had no soft soap They sent us Playboy they gave us Bob Hope We dug in deep and shot on sight And prayed to Jesus Christ with all our might We had no cameras to shoot the landscape We passed the hash pipe and played our Doors tapes And it was dark so dark at night And we held on to each other Like brother to brother We promised our mothers we'd write And we would all go down together We said we'd all go down together Yes we would all go down together Remember Charlie remember Baker They left their childhood on every acre And who was wrong And who was right It didn't matter in the thick of the fight We held the day in the palm of our hand They ruled the night and the night Seemed to last as long as six weeks On Parris Island We held the coastline they held the highlands And they were sharp as sharp as knives They heard the hum of our motors They counted the rotors And waited for us to arrive And we would all go down together We said we'd all go down together Yes we would all go down together