Agent orange

I was seventeen - just a teenage kid,
The year that I enlisted.
I can't remember why I did;
My mom said, "I insisted".
I had some strange idea then,
That Uncle Sam was right.
Oh, momma cried, but she signed the card,
And then I went off to fight.

Got off the plane in Vietnam;
It didn't seem like war.
With all I saw, I started to wonder
What I had come there for.

Some officers got drunk at night,
And cheated on their wives.
And the peasants on the other side,
Were just strugglin' for their lives.

Oh, the Army tried some fancy stuff,
To bring them to their knees;
Like Agent Orange defoliants,
To kill the brush and trees.

We'd hike all day on jungle trails,
Through clouds of poison spray;
And they never told me then,
That it would hurt my health today.

But I got the news this mornin',
Yeah, the doctors told me so;
They killed me in Vietnam,
And I didn't even know.

I tried hard to forget the war,
Like everybody did.
Settled down, got married;
Even had a couple o' kids.

Well my children both have birth defects,
And the doctors had their doubts;
They never could understand it;
But I think I figured it out.

'Cause I got the news this mornin',
Yeah, the doctors told me so;
They killed me in Vietnam,
And I didn't even know.

This Agent Orange from Vietnam,
We carry it with us, still;
It stays inside for years and years,
Before it starts to kill.

You might get cancer of the liver;
You might get cancer of the skin;
You can file for disability,
But you might not live to win.

Oh, I got the news this mornin',
Yeah, the doctors told me so;
They killed me in Vietnam,
And I didn't even know.

Oh, the doctors said I've got some time,
Trying to be kind;
I've never been a radical,
But this has changed my mind.

Oh, I'd be so proud to hear my kid say
"Hell no, I won't go",
Because you killed my dad in Vietnam;
And he didn't even know.

Yes, I'd be so proud to hear my kid say
"Hell no, I won't go",
Because you killed my dad in Vietnam;
And he didn't even know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk8umoqfz14