He was a quiet young man
Too shy to get a date
Enlisted in the infantry
Spring of ’68
The army taught him how to march
They stuck him on a jet
Had him crawling in a tunnel
It was right after Tet
With a flashlight
And a forty-five

It was a long way to go
For a boy named Charlie
There were snakes, there was jungle
There was all kinds of gnarly
Fighting somebody
Everybody called Charlie
Was a mean kind of joke
Charlie fighting Charlie

Way down in a tunnel
Where the fallen angels dwell
There's a quiet young man
Crawling into hell
With a flashlight and a forty-five
Charlie fighting Charlie
Trying to survive
Charlie fighting Charlie
Just to stay alive

He came back home
He drove real fast
A hopped up super sport
Six speeds of bad ass
Stop light dragging
Fastest thing around
He's all jacked up, screaming through town
Whistling past the grave yard coming unwound

Then he married a good woman
Got a black land farm
They had a little girl
Daddy’s lucky little charm
A neighbor who served in World War II
He never said much
Always kind of blue
Always kind of blue
They'd have a drink or two
Charlie and old man
Same kind of blue

Way down in a tunnel
Where the fallen angels dwell
There's a quiet young man
Crawling into hell
With a flashlight and a forty-five
Charlie fighting Charlie
Trying to survive
Charlie fighting Charlie
Just to stay alive

 

Charlie fighting Charlie

Trying to survive

Charlie fighting Charlie

He said the only time he ever felt alive
Was crawling through a tunnel
With a loaded forty-five

Charlie fighting Charlie
Trying to survive
It was the only time that he ever felt alive

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