What can you see from your window?
I can't see anything from mine
Flags on the side of the highway
And scripture on grocery store signs
Maybe eighteen was too early
Maybe thirty or forty is too

Did you get your chance to make peace with the man

Before he sent down his angels for you?



Mamas and grandmamas love you

Cause that's all they know how to do

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

Or sleeping in your dress blues



Your wife said this all would be funny

When you came back home in a week

You'd turn twenty-two and we'd celebrate you

In a bar or a tent by the creek

Your baby would just about be here

Your very last tour would be up

But you won't be back. They're all dressing in black

Drinking sweet tea in styrofoam cups



Mamas and grandmamas love you

American boys hate to lose

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

Or sleeping in your dress blues



Now the high school gymnasium's ready

Full of flowers and old legionnaires

Nobody showed up to protest

Just sniffle and stare

But there's red, white, and blue in the rafters

And there's silent old men from the corps

What did they say when they shipped you away

To fight somebody's Hollywood war?



Nobody here could forget you

You showed us what we had to lose

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

Or sleeping in your dress blues



No, no you never planned on the bombs in the sand

Or sleeping in your dress blues