Said goodbye to his momma as he left South Dakota
To fight for the red, white and blue
He was nineteen and green with a new M-16
Just doing what he had to do
He was dropped in the jungle where the choppers would rumble
With the smell of napalm in the air
And the sergeant said look up ahead

Like a dark evil cloud
Twelve-hundred came down on him and twenty-nine more
They fought for their lives but most of them died
In the one-seventythird Airborne

On the eighth of November the angels were crying
As they carried his brothers away
With the fire raining down and the hell all around
There were few men left standing that day
Saw the eagle fly through a clear blue sky
1965, the eighth of November

Now he's fifty-eight and his pony tail's gray
But the battle still plays in his head
He limps when he walks but he's strong when he talks
About the Shrapnel they left in his leg
He puts on a gray suit over his Airborne tattoo
And he ties it on one time a year
And remembers the fallen as he orders a tall one
And swallows it down with his tears

On the eighth of November the angels were crying
As they carried his brothers away
With the fire raining down and the hell all around
There were few men left standing that day
Saw the eagle fly through a clear blue sky
1965
The eighth of November
The eighth of November (eighth of November)

Said goodbye to his momma as he left South Dakota
To fight for the red, white, and blue
He was nineteen and green with a new M-16
Just doing what he had to do