WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE INFANTRY?
Words and music by Frank Loesser, ©1943.
As recorded by Glenn Miller & The Army Air Force Band.

What do you do in the infantry? You march; you march; you march.
What do you do when your pack has got your back as stiff as starch?
This is a mechanized war, they say; that saying is sure a bust,
'Cause all that you see in the infantry is one another's dust.

What do you do in the infantry? You hike; you hike; you hike.
What do you do in the infantry? You left and right or bike(?).
Everyone else can ride a jeep or fly up in the sky,
But there's nothing to ride in the infantry; you're just a tired guy.

The hard way, the hard way,
Sweat till you get there the hard way.

What do they say in the infantry? They squawk and squawk and squawk
All about miles and miles and miles that they have had to walk.
They march across the ocean, and that's quite a trick to do,
But don't forget the Air Corps has done some marching too.

What do you do in the ground crew? You're always fixin' planes.
Never a chance to sleep and dream of beautiful G. I. Janes.
You're patching a hole in the fuselage or loading the bomber's sticks.
What do you do in the ground crew? You fix and fix and fix.

What do you do in the Air Corps when the flak begins to scream?
How can you duck when the bombardier says, "Steady on the beam"?
How can you dig a foxhole or jump behind a tree?
Wouldn't you love to march away just like the infantry?

The soft way, the soft way,
Try to crash land, brother, the soft way.

What do you do when your gas is gone and you're flyin' a Thunderbolt?
You with the silk can say a prayer and land with an awful jolt.
You drop in a jungle and wrench your back; you're thinkin' of givin' up,
Yet what do you mumble crawlin' back? It's "Hup, two, three, four, hup, two, three, four, hup!"

[I'm pretty sure "bike" is wrong in verse 2, but I can't make out the real word.]