Lyrics and introductory note copied from the liner notes to the album "Soldier Songs" which can be downloaded as a PDF file from the Smithsonian Folkways web site:


WERE YOU WITH THE MARINES

World War II and Korea. PFC Paul Kelso, Camp Wolters, Mineral Wells, Texas. When a song gets to be pretty well known in one war, it goes on to the next one, as this one did with the "re-tread" soldiers of 1941 and 1954. PFC Kelso says this one came from his uncle. He didn't say which uncle, and that his uncle "heard some of the guys singing it." He didn't say where or when. You can see this incident, or one like it, in the great film "Battlecry." By the way, there wasn't any sea-wall at Guadalcanal; that was on Tulagi, or was it Tarawa?

Were you with the Marines on Guadalcanal, hiding in the sand,
Crouching behind the seawall thinkin' 'bout the Promised Land,

Dreaming about our homes and wives: would we see them any more?
Fanatic white and yellow men fighting for what they adore.

Trapped down in a machine-gun nest, surrounded on all sides,
Al Schmidt and the Captain, fighting for their lives.

Bodies stacked up nineteen deep, like shells in a bomb-bay,
Many a white and yellow man lost his life that day.

They fought on through the cruel dark night and into the next day,
When Dugout Doug called to them from away across the bay.

The Captain says, "I'm paralyzed, and Al Schmidt he is blind,
But I tell him where to fire the gun as though we had one mind."

Dugout Doug lifted them up, says, "You'll get a medal this night."
"Yes," said Al Schmidt, "but will the Corps give back my sight?"

"Yes," said the Captain, "will I ever move again?"
And Dugout Doug turned to hide his tears from the men.