Hey, big breakthrough in "Bless 'em All" studies!

Head for the Library of Congress's "American Memory" page and navigate to Captain Leighton Robinson's performance of a 19th C. music-hall song called "A-Roodle-Tum-Toodle-Tum-Too." With a few strategic alterations, this is unmistakably the melody we now associate with "Bless 'em All." The words, of course, are unrelated.

Robinson learned the song on his first voyage to sea -- in 1888.