Robert was a sailor   For the best years of his life   His captain was his mother   And the ocean was his wife      Only fresh out of the cradle   Life's one and only spring   He was sworn to do his duty   And got blood on his high school ring      And it's hello California   Hello, dad and mom   Ship ahoy, your baby boy   Is home from Vietnam      Don't you ask me any questions   'Bout the medals on my chest   Take the star out of the window   And let my conscience take a rest      Now he sailed across the ocean   To the old far eastern war   And it was foreign to his body   It was foreign to his shore      So he traded in the present   For the better times he'd seen   And made an oriental waitress   His own home comin' queen      And it's hello California   Hello, dad and mom   Ship ahoy, your baby boy   Is home from Vietnam      Don't you ask me any questions   'Bout the medals on my chest   Take the star out of the window   And let my conscience take a rest