I have wondered if the Yellow Ribbon cadence song was introduced by Irish immigrants who joined the military. There are hints of Irish in other cadences too. The "Old Lady/Woman" cadences where the soldiers meet the old woman dressed for battle on the way to some training school. When I served in the US Army and first heard them I knew that this was the Morrigan, the Queen of Battle, a shapeshifter who can appear old or young. In legends she often appears to the hero of the story shortly before he must engage in combat. The nickname for the Infantry in the US Army is The Queen of Battle. Most assume that is from the chess game. But infantry moves nothing like a queen in chess. The pawns are the infantry, the queen move more like air assult (repeling out of helecopters) and other airborne attacks. But there were a great deal of Irish in the infantry as well as the cavalry which is now mechanised infantry.

Sorry to digress so far from Yellow Ribbon. The yellow ribbon may date back to a song about a widow of 23 who marries a boy of 14. It is an arranged marriage of the middle ages. He is still attending school and she ties yellow ribbons around his head so that the girls at school will know he is a married man. He is married at 14, a father at 15 and dead by 16. But I can't remember the name of the song.