• Said goodbye to his mamma
    As he left South Dakota
    To fight for the Red, White, and Blue.
    He was nineteen and green with a new M-16
    Just doing what he had to do.

    He was dropped in the jungle
    Where the choppers would rumble
    With the smell of napalm in the air.
    And the sergeant said, "Look up ahead"

    Like a dark, evil cloud
    1,200 came down
    on him and 29 more.
    They fought for their lives
    But most of them died
    In the 173rd Airborne.

    (Chorus)
    On the 8th of November,
    The angels were crying
    As they carried his brothers away.
    With the fire raining down
    And the Hell all around
    There were few men left standing that day.
    Saw the eagle fly,
    Through a clear, blue sky
    1965, the 8th of November.

    Now he's fifty-eight
    And his ponytail's grey
    But the battle still plays in his head.
    He limps when he walks,
    But he's strong when he talks
    About the shrapnel they left in his leg.

    He puts on a grey suit
    Over his Airborne tattoo
    And He ties it on one time a year
    And remembers the fallen,
    As he orders a tall one
    And swallows it down with his tears.

    (Chorus)
    On the 8th of November,
    The angels were crying
    As they carried his brothers away.
    With the fire raining down
    And the Hell all around
    There were few men left standing that day.
    Saw the eagle fly,
    Through a clear, blue sky
    1965, the 8th of November.

    Saw the eagle fly,
    Through a clear, blue sky
    1965.

    (Chorus)
    On the 8th of November,
    The angels were crying
    As they carried his brothers away.
    With the fire raining down
    And the Hell all around
    There were few men left standing that day.

    (Chorus)
    On the 8th of November,
    The angels were crying
    As they carried his brothers away.
    With the fire raining down
    And the Hell all around,
    There were few men left standing that day.
    Saw the eagle fly,
    Through a clear, blue sky
    1965, the 8th of November.

    The 8th of November
    The 8th of November

    He said goodbye to his mamma
    As he left South Dakota
    To fight for the Red, White, and Blue.
    He was nineteen and green with a new M-16
    Just doing what he had to do.