(intro)  G  Em/G  G  Em/G

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

(chorus)
Em/G      F#/G            G
Mamas and grandmamas love you
     Em/G             F#/G         G  F#/G
'cause that's all they know how to do.
Em/G                     Bm
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
   C/G                         G                D
or sleeping in your dress blues.

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

(chorus)
Em/G      F#/G            G
Mamas and grandmamas love you
 Em/G    F#/G         G  F#/G
American boys hate to lose.
Em/G                     Bm
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
   C/G                         G                D
or sleeping in your dress blues.

(bridge)

(verse)
G                               Em/G
Now the high school gymnasium's ready,
G                              Em/G
full of flowers and old legionnaires.
G                      Em/G
Nobody showed up to protest,

C/G                    G      D
just sniffle and stare.
G                                       Em/G
But there's red, white, and blue in the rafters
G                                   Em/G
and there's silent old men from the corps.
G                             Em/G
What did they say when they shipped you away
C/G                              G      D
to fight somebody's Hollywood war?

Em/G      F#/G            G
Nobody here could forget you.
     Em/G             F#/G         G  F#/G
You showed us what we had to lose.
Em/G                     Bm
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
   C/G                         G                D
or sleeping in your dress blues.

Em/G                     Bm
You never planned on the bombs in the sand
   C/G                         G                D
or sleeping in your dress blues.