Since I've come to Plattsburg
I've eaten so many eggs,
That feathers now adorn my skin,
And spurs are on my legs.
WITH APOLOGIES TO KIPLING'S "THE VAMPIRE"
A fool there was, and he made his prayer,
(Even as you and I)
Tho't he would hold down a colonel's chair,
So he came up here to do and dare,
But the skipper decided he wasn't there,
(Even as you and I).
Oh, the days we waste, and the pay we waste,
And the work of our hands and feet
Belong to the days we did not know,
(And now we know we never could know)
Enough to stand still at retreat.
Oh, the sleep we lost and the weight we lost,
And the things we had to eat
Can never come back to make us want,
(We hope they can't and pray they sha'n't)
If they did we'd admit we were beat.
The fool was stripped to his foolish hide,
(Even as you and I)
And they wouldn't let him be rear guide,
(So some of him lived, but the most of him died)
And he stayed a "rookie" just outside
(Even as you and I).
FINIS
There's a lot that's pretty funny in the life we lead up here,
The problems and the hikin' and the mess;
But sometimes when I'm all alone I get a little blue,
And that's the way with everyone, I guess.
I often sit and wonder what it's really all about,
And what the end of all this will be;
It seems almost impossible that we will be at war,
And see the things a soldier has to see.
It's something more than just parade and something more than drill,
And something more than hiking in the rain.
It means that lots of friends we've made are going over seas,
And some of them will not come back again.