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