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While still in high school, the military called me, trying to recruit me into either the Army, Navy, Air Force, or the Marines. The Marines and Air Force only inquired once. After I told them NO, they never contacted me again, but the Navy did a couple times I think. When it came to the Army, I told them I wasn't interested about 5 or 6 times. After that, I told them not to call me anymore since my mind wasn't going to change. I would never be interested in serving the country in such a way. I knew it wasn't my calling, and it was obvious. The recruiter got angry with me and called me a coward and said my family were all cowards and so on. After that exchange, I told him where to go and hung up on him. He then proceeded to call back and my mom answered the phone, only to have the recruiter curse at her. She hung up the phone and was visibly distraught. When my father got home from work, he not only called them on the phone, he went to the recruiting office directly, got an apology from the entire office, and instructed them to never call his place again. One of the officers there said to my dad, “Mr. Brown, we are sorry.....” and so on and so forth, and my father told them to address him as, “Sir” and that shut them up fairly quickly. Since my father did serve in the Army in the mid-60's, he demanded a certain amount of respect from them and when he was done, he got it. It was an incident I never forgot. However, I was still very angry to have gone through such a ridiculous ordeal that I had to write about it. This song is simplistic and not exactly a patriotic tune, but it's also not a total slam on them either, except the last line in the song. I am one of the people who supports our military, but, alike my father, I won't put up with BS either when it comes to that kind of disrespect. These people should have known that their behavior was way out of line.

This is song #175.

Recorded at The CELL BLOCK Studio in Auburn, WA.

lyrics

LAST NIGHT I SAW THE ARMY. LAST NIGHT THEY CROSSED THE SEA.
LAST NIGHT I SAW THE ARMY REACHIN' TO GET AFTER ME.

LAST NIGHT I SAW THE ARMY. LAST NIGHT THEY CROSSED THE SEAS.
LAST NIGHT I SAW THE ARMY REACHIN' TO GET AFTER ME.

I HAD A VISION WITH MEN IN THEIR BOATS,
SEEIN' THEM DYING WAY OUT A-FLOAT.
THE WAR THEY FOUGHT, THEY FOUND IN THEIR WILLS,
FOR THEY HAVE DIED FOR THE PEOPLE THEY'VE KILLED.

LAST NIGHT I SAW THE ARMY. LAST NIGHT THEY CROSSED THE SEA.
LAST NIGHT I SAW THE ARMY REACHIN' TO GET AFTER ME.
(SOLO)
LAST NIGHT I SAW THE ARMY. LAST NIGHT THEY CROSSED THE SEAS.
LAST NIGHT I SAW THE ARMY REACHIN' TO GET AFTER ME,
REACHIN' TO GET AFTER ME,
LEAVE ME THE HELL ALONE.

credits

from MY PEN​-​IS AN ILLUSION [Digitally Remastered], released September 2, 2015
Wayde K. Brown

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The Santairs Auburn, Washington

I am a musician, singer, and songwriter doing this part-time but have been doing it all my life. I started singing before I could talk at the age of one, and wrote my first real song at 15 years of age. (If you count avant-garde as a song, then the age would be 7.) I currently own my own recording studio; and I write, perform, and record my own music (and other's from time to time.) I am Santairs. ... more

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