Intro: C G F C
C G
16 years old when I went to the war
F C
To fight for a land fit for heroes
C G
God on my side, and a gun in my hand,
F C
Chasing my days down to zero,
C G
And I marched and I fought and I bled and I died,
F C
And I never did get any older,
C G
But I knew at the time that a year in the line,
F C
Is a long enough life for a soldier,
C G
We all volunteered, and we wrote down our names,
F C
And we added two years to our ages,
C G
Eager for life and ahead of the game,
F C
Ready for history's pages,
C G
And we brawled and we fought and we whored 'til we stood,
F C
Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder,
C G
A thirst for the Hun, we were food for the gun,
F C
And that's what you are when you're soldiers,
C G
I heard my friend cry, and he sank to his knees,
F C
Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother,
C G
And I fell by his side, and that's how we died,
F C
Clinging like kids to each other,
C G
And I lay in the mud and the guts and the blood,
F C
And I wept as his body grew colder,
C G
And I called for my mother and she never came,
C G
Though it wasn't my fault and I wasn't to blame,
B G
The day not half over and ten thousand slain,
C G
And now there's nobody remembers our names,
B G
And that's how it is for a soldier.