Digital Tradition Mirror

Fourteen Days Leave

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Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Fourteen Days Leave

A trooper came down on his fourteen days leave,
When up stepped a Provo saying, "Leave passes, please.
There's blood on your tunic and guts on your sleeve
I think I'll just cancel your fourteen days leave."

cho: Dinkie die, dinkie die
     I couldn't, I wouldn't not tell you a lie.

The trooper then gave him a murderous look
Said, "See here, you bastard, I'm fresh from Hiep Duc,
Where whiz-bangs are flying and comforts are few
And brave men are dying for bastards like you."

Oh Quang Ni, oh Quang Ni, a hell of a place
The way things are done it's a fucking disgrace;
With Captains and Majors and Light Colonels too
With their heads up their asses and nothing to do.
They stand in the compound, they scream and they shout
Of a whole not of shit they know nothing about.
For all they accomplish, they might as well be
Shoveling shit in the South China Sea.

I've fought in Ha Tahn, I've fought up in Hue
I've fought in this place for a year and some days;
And while you were down on the fat of your ass
I was out at Kam Duc near the Ho Che Minh Track.

Did you ever have a father, did it ever occur?
Did you ever have a mother, and did you strike her?
When women have babies, they have them with ease,
When harlots have bastards, they call them MPs.

Oh the rules of engagement are something else, too
You can't shoot a dink unless he shoots as you.
For all of the murders we'd like to commit
We end up with footprints all over our dick.
From The Longest Year, Bowen and Fish
Note: A clear decendant of the WWI Dinkie-die, with names
     changed to bring it to Vietnam. rg
RG

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!