I'm going to post the minority view here.

This is a good example of a forgettable, commercial unfolksong.

Pete Seeger was a New Yorker. Smothers Bros show prob came out of California. Song reeks of bi-coastal contempt for anybody in-between.

The Big Muddy is the Missouri River. It is huge, swift and powerful. To deal with it you don't just need a boat and motor, you need a BIG boat and motor. To enter it without a boat is to commit suicide. No way is a river in Louisiana, where grades are more level, the Big Muddy.

By changing the date to 1942 (to rhyme with "platoon" for heaven's sake) Seeger exploits and trivializes the deaths of the recruits in 1956. Well, they were only flyovers.

As for the line "We were on maneuvers in-a Loozianna" who the hell talks that way?

I'm not surprised this song has gone into obscurity.