Semper Fi - Peter, Paul and Mary

My father met Eleanor Roosevelt

In nineteen forty-five

The war was finally over then

And they were still alive

Her husband was the president

'Til he ran out of time

Her Franklin D. was history

And they put him on the dime

My father joined the leathernecks

To stay out of the mine

The new marine was just sixteen

In nineteen thirty-nine

There were medals and malaria

The South Pacific War

Through jungles that were paradise

And were paradise no more

Soldiers fight and soldiers die

Soldiers live to wonder why

Semper fi, fe-fo-fum

Look out peacetime, here we come

Some of the men who did survive

Were not the lucky ones

War is only good for those

Who make and sell the guns

My father lay recovering

The hurt was all inside

Sometimes the wounds that never heal

Are the easiest to hide

When Eleanor came bearing gifts

To San Francisco Bay

She gave my dad a blanket

In the hospital that day

That blanket meant a lot to him

My mother has it still

Some forget the kindnesses

That others never will

Soldiers fight and soldiers die

Soldiers live to wonder why

Semper fi, fe-fo-fum

Look out peacetime, here we come