Peace time veteran

A peacetime soldier at seventeen

I just wanted to escape, it was after nam 
Basic done, they sent me on a plane ride 
Somewhere far away, I just wanted to earn 
my pay

And they call me a peacetime veteran
Like the swear carried no weight
I’m just a peacetime vet

Never heard of the DMZ
Naive, just a kid, just a teen
The 38th parallel, 
Where I heard it was real hell
I was now there

And they called me a peacetime veteran
I was made to wear the name and never cared

You’re just a peacetime vet

Ingman Range in ’81
commotion came like a thunderstorm
Black helmets in jeeps came charging in
The sound of fire was never strange
But something terrible struck that day.

I’m just a peacetime Veteran. 

At Ingman Range, four men died that day
From an attack that came from within

“You’re just a peacetime vet”

As if no blood was ever shed
A peacetime vet
But I can’t forget the dead

Kwangju, a city on fire
Driving a KATUSA general through the wire
Couldn’t speak the language, just a detail
But I saw the smoke, I heard the wail
Many dead, and still they said

“You’re just a peacetime veteran”

Like the years don’t bear a cost
peacetime vet
But I know what we all lost

I’m just a peacetime veteran 

Two years in the Infantry Division
There was a ville, a black-market mission
Where thunder runs roared through the night
Trading shadows just to get by
Strange kind of order in a stranger life

They call me a peacetime vet
Like it all just fades away
A peacetime vet
But those nights still burn today
I’m just a peacetime vet

Years later I learned the worst
Rainbow herbicides stained the earth
Where I had crawled low in the dirt for two years
Who knew what damage lived unseen?

And still they call me a peacetime vet

Like the story held no pain
A peacetime vet was a name of shame
But the poison Came and still remains

I’m just a peace time Vet

blues, twang