Name: The Soldier's Song
Duration: P00H04M28S
Description: I served in Afghanistan in 2012, and it struck me how people like me have found themselves fighting on those same hills for thousands of years. I figured the Taliban were mostly young people with no skills who needed a job - just like me. Just like soldiers in armies around the world since forever.

Sober - The Soldier's Song

from SpinTunes 19 Round 2 by Spintunes

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about

I served in Afghanistan in 2012, and it struck me how people like me have found themselves fighting on those same hills for thousands of years. I figured the Taliban were mostly young people with no skills who needed a job - just like me. Just like soldiers in armies around the world since forever.

lyrics

Today I pack my rifle, 5.56 and all my gear
Yesterday I had an Enfield 30 rounds in a bandolier
Last week I marched with Sherman, fixed a bayonet
If there’s a war to end all wars, I haven’t seen it yet

I’ve stood in the shield wall, been cut down by cavalry
I was first over the transom when we lost Gallipoli
You can call me eleven bravo, legs, or infantry
My story’s just the same throughout all of history

I have died a million deaths
I’ve been slashed and torn asunder
Taken many of my last breaths
As the riptide pulled me under

The story has been told before and will be told again
So long as there are poor young men

I have been on both sides of a crumbling palisade
Too often I’m a child, untrained and afraid
I sang carols in the trenches on a quiet Christmas eve
And now I am a mother fighting in the streets of Kyiv

Rarely have I volunteered for duty or for pride
It’s a job and my employer chooses when and how I die
The terrors I have seen, the awful tools of hell
By and by I’ll get my due for using them myself

Sometimes I survive and see my sons grow old
Old enough to take my place in this eternal role

credits

from SpinTunes 19 Round 2, released April 4, 2022

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Spintunes Union, South Carolina

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Each album on this site contains the responses to a single challenge.