A Song for the Infantry
"Into the wild blue yonder"
the Air Force proudly sings.
"From the Halls of Montezuma"
the Marine Hymn stoutly rings.
At the break of day, the Navy
sings of setting sail.
The lumbering Field Artillery
"Hits the dusty trail".
Scores of divisions of Infantry,
an immense heroic throng,
hundreds of thousands of them died,
and they died without a song.
We will make for them a verse;
we will sing for them a song;
feeble though our tongues may be,
our hearts cannot be wrong.
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We're the Minute Men of Concord;
we set our country free.
We are founders of a nation,
the mighty Infantry.
We served with Grant at Vicksburg;
for Lee we wept and died.
In blue and grey formations
we fought and marched with pride.
And when the world tottered
we crossed the troubled deep --
no sunset on the crosses
that mark our brothers' sleep.
Stalwart comrades have we
in the Field Artillery
cannons behind the rifles
of the fighting Infantry.
Marines are fearless fighters,
but their ranks are few and small --
in time of all-out warfare,
for the Infantry, the call.
Afar the Air Force ranges
in shining ships, well manned,
but the foe was never vanquished
till we occupied the land.
We're the Minute Men of Concord.
We'll keep our country free.
We are proud of our tradition --
The fighting Infantry.
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The Young Lieutenants
Where are the young lieutenants
who sailed across the sea?
Where are the proud young men
who went across with me?
Some are home, now older,
some sleep beyond the sea--
and all are so much humbler
than ever they thought they'd be.
The Veteran
Five days off Le Havre we lay,
afar the sea-washed sand;
men paced the slimy decks each day
and longed for feet on land.
He walked the crowded deck alone
and viewed the land with dread,
He lived the hours, one by one --
he knew the task ahead.
He quietly savored the salt sea air,
drank of the infinite blue,
worshiped the placid sea so fair,
humbly took his due,
turned his face to the morning breeze,
heard the ocean sway,
watched night fall on sunset seas --
lived with the dying day.
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