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 ain't never been to Vietnam   There's a bunch of our boys over there"   So, we went to the Orient, Saigon      Well, we got a big welcome when we drove in   Through the gates of a place that they call 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 and things weren't quite   Things were scary      Well, for a few minutes June never said one word   And I thought at first that 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, "I'm scared", I said, "Me too"      Well, all night long that noise kept on   And the sound would chill you right to the bone   The bullets and the bombs and the motor shells   Shook our bed every time one fell and it never let up   It was gonna get worse before it got any better      Well when the sun came up the noise died down   We got a few minutes sleep and we were sleepin' sound   Then a soldier knocked on our door and said   "Last night we brought in seven dead and fourteen wounded"   And would we come down to the base hospital   And see the boys, yeah      So we went to the hospital ward by day   And every night we were singin' away   Then the shells and the bombs 'til dawn again   And the helicopters 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 it's over there   Whether we belonged over there or not   Somebody over here loves them and needs them      Well, now that's about all there is to tell   About that little trip into livin' hell   And if I ever go back over there anymore   Hope there's none of our boys there for me to sing for   I hope that war's over with and they all come back home   To stay in peace