1930 hours, glasses filled with beer or gin
In the officer's club in the Navy Yard for a short-range battle practice win
Shouts of celebration and a warm Pacific breeze
And finally crawling into cars to steal some rest and be at ease
Morning awful blue and awful bright
In 24 years was never quite so heavy in his head, so he boards his ship and he heads for bed
As he enters starboard side, the speakers crackle in their cry:
'Air attack, all unengaged personnel seek cover
No shit fellows, this is the real thing.'
He's starting down to third deck when the first torpedo strikes
This is no drill, this is the time to claw to ladders, light, and life
All hands man your battle stations, but the floor is turning steep
And slick with oil, six strikes, six minutes
Shaking like a wounded boar
429 aboard her as she sank into the black
A shivering ship of war beneath relentless air attack
And all I'll do and all I've done has a wire running right back to
December 7, 1941
As panic swells he clamors to a porthole left ajar
The only door, the only chance to escape the sinking tomb he's on
With all his failing might he swims as men around him drown
And fall to pieces cut by shrapnel, strafed by fire streaming down
When he surfaces in shallows and his body forces breath
He hears the sound of separation, oil, water, smoke and death
A ship that fought its damndest while strangled to stay dry
A harbor filled with sailors wary of an open sky
429 aboard her as she sank into the black
A shivering ship of war beneath relentless air attack
And all I'll do and all I've done has a wire running right back to
December 7, 1941