Volunteers

Am  F  C  G  F

[Verse 1]
              C             F     
I played with army men as a boy in
        C
 my backyard
I was eighteen when I joined the 
         G
National Guard
  F                              
I cakewalked basic, and they paid 
        C
for my degree
        F                      
All for filling up sandbags and 
                  G
clearing storm debris


[Verse 2]
          Am                   F  
And I had just re-upped on the 
            C
base in my hometown
When the whole deal changed on the 
                         G
day that the planes went down
       Em                    
Just a casual soldier, twelve 
            F
weekends a year
              C                    
I was Baghdad bound when they 
  G           C      F  Am  G
called up the volunteers


[Verse 3]
          C                   F   
We’d seen more than enough to know
        C
 war is hell
But we were thinking that we had it 
                      G
made once the capital fell
      F                         
So we partied in the palaces and 
               C
waited to withdraw
     F                             
'Til things started going south 
               G
both sides of the wall


Continues after the ad
[Verse 4]
          Am                  
First the looting, the suicide 
 F                 C
bombers and the IED's
Then the prisons and the torture and
                        G
 all those pictures on TV
    Em                           
The kickbacks, the blackouts, the 
                 F
martyrs and the fear
        C                   G     
And now everyone in Babylon blames
           C     F  Am  G
 the volunteers


[Verse 5]
            C                 
There was a roadside bomb on a 
 F               C
convoy late one night
I was fine, but this buddy of mine 
                     G
probably should have died
        F                      
So they radioed a medevac and I 
                   C
tried to keep him warm
              F                    
Now he’s back home learning how to 
                          G
feed himself with two new arms


[Verse 6]
            Am                     
And all the others, they suffer 
  F                     C
from wounds that you can’t see
So they try to forget and go back 
home to their jobs and their 
    G
families
            Em                  
Yeah we got paid, no one made us 
           F
come over here
             C                G   
But it ain't close to an even 
                F
trade for the volunteers


[Instrumental]
Am  C  G  Am  F  C  G  F


[Verse 7]
            C                F    
Maybe we’ll all be judged by 
       C
history and god
Maybe the best way to honour the 
                          G
departed is to finish the job
               F                   
But while they argue who is winning
                             C
 and whether we should go or stay
     F                          
Over here it’s a victory just to 
                         G
make it through another day


[Verse 8]
           Am                  
And me I’m long past making any 
 F                       C
sense of the blood I've spilled
But it's hard to believe this is all
                   G
 part of any God’s will
           Em                    
And if you find I’ve fallen after 
                   F
all the smoke has cleared
               C   G        Am
Let the record show I volunteered
               C   G        Am
Let the record show I volunteered