Why Are You Marching, Son? Songtext
von John Wayne

Why Are You Marching, Son? I′d really like to know!
Is it because of Valley Forge, or perhaps the Alamo?
Or, "One if by land-- two if by sea"
A trumpet's call... the will to be free?
And what of a man who stood straight and tall
Who wept silent tears when he saw brave men fall?
No matter-- no difference-- the blue or the gray
All were his brothers... how often he′d pray
And what of Antietam-- that now peaceful stream
Where the water, blood-red, glittered and gleamed?
Appomattox, Chickamauga, Vicksburg, Bull Run
Cumberland, Gettysburg, and then Washington
Why Are You Marching, Son?


In Flanders Fields, how proud were they
Whose forms beneath the poppies lay
Men who saw Verdun
And died at the Marne, Soissons
And those who tried the fearful foe at Chateau-Thierry
Who fought and bled... whose hearts grew weary
But in whose minds one thought kept churning
That the torch of liberty keep burning
Why Are You Marching, Son?

The planes swarmed in, and the rising sun
Glowed fiercely on the evil done
To men whose blood runs through our veins
Men who died, and whose remains
Life forever locked in waters deep
Now, is it right that they should sleep
While the warm sea laps at a twisted hull
And see the torch of liberty grow dull?
Anzio, Cassino, and the Po!
St. Mere Eglise, Le Mans, St. Lo!
Gardelegen, Buchenwald
On and on the roll is called!
And why? Why Are You Marching, Son?


Bugles shrilled in the frozen night
And at first dawn, the awful sight
Of seas and men, row after row
Left to die on the blood-stained snow!
Pusan, Pyongyang, Suwan, Kyongju!
And blood-red ran the swift Yalu!
In South Vietnam the big guns roared
And once again we fought a war
To honor a pledge our nation gave
To help that little country save
Her people from the certainty
That she'd be ruled by tyranny

No matter where the big guns roar
Our fighting men, like those before
Take the torch we all held dear
And face freedom's enemies without fear
Our fathers died from sea to sea
And blessed the torch of liberty
Why? Why Are You Marching, Son?