Capo 3rd fret

Intro:

||:   G     |     G    :||

        G

One mornin' at breakfast I said to my wife,

            C

"We've been ev'rywhere once and some places twice."

A7

As I had another helping of country ham, she said,

D

     "We ain't never been to Vietnam,

                      G

And there's a bunch of our boys over there."

     C                                        D7

So       we went to the Orient,     Saigon.

               G

Well, we got a big welcome when we drove in

            C

To the gates of a place that they call Long Ben.

       A7

We checked in and ev'rything got kind of quiet.

           D

But a soldier boy said, "Just wait till tonight.

                 G                           C

Things get noisy, things start happenin'.

               D7

Big, bad firecrackers."

                 G

Well, that night we did about four shows for the boys

                        C

And they were livin' it up with a whole lot of noise.

       A7

We did our last song for the night

             D

And we crawled into bed for some peace and quiet.

                 G                                                      C

But things weren't peaceful and things weren't      quiet.

                    D7

Things were      scary.

                  G

Well, for a few minutes, June never said one word,

          C

And I     thought at first that she hadn't heard.

            A7

Then a shell exploded not two miles away.

        D

She sat up in bed and I heard her say,

                   G                                              C

"What was that?" I said, "That was a shell    or a bomb."

                         D7

She said, "I'm scared." I said, "Me too".

         G

Well, all night long that noise kept on,

             C

And the sound would chill you right to the bone.

        A7

The bullets and the bombs and the mortar shells

D                                                                  G

      Shook our bed ev'ry time one fell and it never let up.

                                        C                                      D7

It was gonna get worse     before it got any better.

                         G

Well, when the sun came up, the noise died down.

               C

We got a few minutes sleep and we were sleepin' sound.

             A7

Then a soldier knocked on our door and said,

         D                                                   G

Last night they brought in 7 dead and 14 wounded.

                                    C                                                                 D7

And would we come down to the base hospital and see the boys.        Yeah.

            G

So, we went to the hospital ward by day

C

     And ev'ry night we were singin' away.

              A7

Then the shells and the bombs till dawn again,

              D

And the helicopters brought in the wounded men.

G                                         C                        D7

Night after night, day after day, comin' and goin'.

            G

So, we sadly sang for them our last song

C

     And reluctantly we said, "So long."

      A7

We did our best to let 'em know that we care

        D

For ev'ry last one of  'em that's over there.

             G

Wether we belong over there or not,

                          C                            D7

Somebody over here loves 'em and needs 'em.

                   G

Well, now, that's about all that there is to tell

           C

About that little trip into livin' hell.

              A7

And if  I ever go back over there anymore,

                      D

I hope there's none of our boys there for me to sing for.

                  G

I hope that war is over with

                     C                                      D7       G

And they all come back home to stay           in peace.