Sun is a killer on the Twentynine Palms sand
A ghost in the wash, a forgotten second hand
Two months of ITX, a desert of pain
Diggin' this hole again and again!
MRE dust is caked in my throat
This OpFor game is gettin' old
They're in the town, we play the part
But this fire in my chest is ready to start!
Radio crackles, a frantic, broken sound...
The air gets heavy, we stand our ground...
Then the war games BLEED into real despair!
A flash on the screen, a curse on the air!
"Battalion's wiped out!" The Colonel's hit!
We lost the MWX in this hellish pit!
And through the static, a voice, ragged and lean
"J'ai besoin de renforts!" From the French Legion!
They're Legionnaires, holdin' a shattered street!
The enemy's closing, the heat is on heat!
And we're 2/5's captives, their "dead" brigade
Forced to just watch the real fight being played!
We see the muzzle flash in the urban night!
A bitter, helpless, and furious sight!
They're callin' for help, for a goddamn hand!
But the rules of this exercise say we're a dead man!
Our blood is pumping, but our guns are cold...
A story of failure that's gotta be told!
And the war games CRACK with the sound of the real!
A cold, hollow wound that they'll never feel!
We "died" in the sand for a scorecard's sin!
While real warriors were getting pinned!
Through the chaos, that accent, sharp and clean!
"Où sont les renforts?" From the French Legion!
We sat there in the dark, our rifles full of blanks!
A silent, shameful chorus from the captured tanks!
There's no glory here! No victory bell!
Just listening to another man's living hell!
Yeah, the lesson is carved in blood and in stone!
You fight for the man beside you, you fight alone!
And sometimes the cavalry's already dead and gone!
Yeah, the war games SHATTERED! Nothing was true!
There was nothin', not a goddamn thing we could do!
We lost the MWX on a controller's whim!
While real soldiers' lights were growing dim!
And I'll never forget that haunted, final scene!
The Legion surrounded! And us, 2/5's captive, green!
OORAH!
We screamed it into the dust!
A promise broken, a lesson in trust!
For the men in the city... who held the line...
WE HEARD YOU!
YEAH, WE HEARD YOU!
