Mark Erelli - Volunteers lyrics

I played with army men as a boy in my backyard I was18 when I joined the National Guard I cakewalked basic and they paid for my degree All for filling up sandbags and clearing storm debris I had just re-upped at the base in my hometown But the whole deal changed on the day that the planes went down Just a casual soldier, 12 weekends a year I was Baghdad bound when they called up the volunteers We'd seen more than enough to know that war is hell But we were thinking that we had it made once the capital fell We partied in the palace while we waited to withdraw 'Til things started going south both sides of the wall First the looting, the suicide bombers and IED's Then the prisons, the torture and all those pictures on TV The kickbacks, the blackouts, the martyrs and the fear Now everyone in Babylon blames the volunteers We hit a roadside bomb on a convoy late one night I was fine but this buddy of mine probably should have died They radioed a Medevac and I tried to keep him warm Now he's back home learning how to feed himself with two new arms And there are others who suffer from wounds that you can't see So they try to forget and go back home to their jobs and their families Yeah, we got paid, no one made us come over here But it ain't close to an even trade for the volunteers Maybe we'll all be judged by history and God Maybe the best way to honor the departed is to finish the job But while they argue who's winning, and whether we should go or stay Over here it's a victory just to make it through another day Me I'm long past making any sense of the blood I've spilled It's hard to believe all this is part of any God's will And if you find I've fallen after all the smoke has cleared Let the record show I volunteered