Intro:

G5  E5  G5  E5

Verse:

G5                          E5
What can you see from your window?
G5                         E5
I can't see anything from mine.
G5                        E5
Flags on the side of the highway
    C5                        G5      D5
and scripture on grocery store signs.
G5                      E5
Maybe eighteen was too early.
G5                        E5
Maybe thirty or forty is too.
G5                               E5
Did you get your chance to make peace with the man
     C5                               G5          D5
before he sent down his angels for you?

Chorus:

E5      F#5            G5
Mamas and grandmamas love you
     E5             F#5         G5  F#5
'cause that's all they know how to do.
E5                     B5
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
   C5                         G5                D5
or sleeping in your dress blues.


Verse:

G5                                E5
Your wife said this all would be funny
G5                            E5
when you came back home in a week.
G5                              E5
You'd turn twenty-two and we'd celebrate you
C5                           G5      D5
in a bar or a tent by the creek.
G5                             E5
Your baby would just about be here.
G5                             E5
Your very last tour would be up
G5                                    E5
but you won't be back. They're all dressing in black
C5                                G5      D5
drinking sweet tea in styrofoam cups.

Chorus:

E5      F#5            G5
Mamas and grandmamas love you
 E5    F#5         G5  F#5
American boys hate to lose.
E5                     B5
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
   C5                         G5                D5
or sleeping in your dress blues.

Bridge

Verse

G5                               E5
Now the high school gymnasium's ready,
G5                              E5
full of flowers and old legionnaires.
G5                      E5
Nobody showed up to protest,

C5                    G5      D5
just sniffle and stare.
G5                                       E5
But there's red, white, and blue in the rafters
G5                                   E5
and there's silent old men from the corps.
G5                             E5
What did they say when they shipped you away
C5                              G5      D5
to fight somebody's Hollywood war?


E5      F#5            G5
Nobody here could forget you.
     E5             F#5         G5  F#5
You showed us what we had to lose.
E5                     B5
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
   C5                         G5                D5
or sleeping in your dress blues.

E5                     B5
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
   C5                         G5                D5
or sleeping in your dress blues.