Well, my grandpa fought in World War 2, my uncle fought in Nam My father was too young, he went to school and met my mom And her dad always told us stories around dinner time And theres one he told when I was young that sticks out in my mind
He said, 10 years after daddy taught me about the birds and bees I was stranded in Pearl Harbor fighting off the Japanese When the kamikaze pilots came and dove in without warning I was on the Arizona on a warm December morning
I remember when I was a younger man We were solders fighting in a foreign land Now Im older and its happening again
It was hard to have forgiveness for the things they did that day And our president decided we should make their people pay So we dropped on Nagasaki and we cut them down to size And the one we dropped on Hiroshima left them vaporized
And I heard some Christians say What would Jesus do? What if you were on the wrong side Would he point the gun at you?
And they read through every word of Matthew, Mark and Luke and John So they could see if killing was the side that Christ was on
I remember when I was a younger man We were solders fighting in a foreign land Now Im older and its happening again
And they separate the church and state and keep God out of schools So our governments can educate based upon their rules But people start to wonder if our politics make sense When religion is our best excuse for national defense
And when our citizens start saying that our wars are not okay And Washington keeps telling them, God loves the USA And they teach us history so we can learn from our mistakes And this generation wants to know how many years it takes
To change the way we treat our neighbors all across the land Cause if we dont change our hearts, we repeat the past again
I remember when I was a younger man We were soldiers fighting in a foreign land Now we're older and its happening again
When my grandpa finished talking, we went walking he and I I was thinking of the future and how scared I was to die Now my best friends overseas in the desert where its dry Fighting for our country and I need a reason why
I remember when he was a younger man Now hes a soldier fighting in a foreign land Now were older, God bring him home again