A Brother's Heart

I was walking home from the grocery early one Friday night.
He was standing on the corner and he asked me for a light.
It was obvious to me he was living on the street.
And it's very easy to walk on by and never stop to meet.
And I don't smoke so I couldn't give him what he asked me for,
But when something compelled me to stop and talk, his story began to pour.
Said he was a veteran of the Southeast Asian War.
Spent his tour with an Airborne unit, but he'd walked a hundred miles or more.

(He said "Lemme tell you something.")

He said "I know the difference just by the way the sound
Was that grenade a Chi Com or was it our frag coming down!"
He said "Brother I can tell you when the shootin's just begun
Was that fifty caliber ours or theirs, by the rhythm of the gun!
Why, I can tell an AK from a mile away!  And a sixteen is plain to me.
'Cause I was Eleven Bravo!  That's Rock and Roll!  Friend, I was Infantry!"

Now each platoon had a radio call sign if you had a message to send.
His was Lima, third platoon's was November, and in November he had a friend.
He said one night that Lima had bushwhack - his term for ambush patrol -
About 500 meters away from where November had dug their holes.
He said it was in the early morning hours - that dark before the dawn
When November come under such heavy fire, you knew it was fight or run.

He said "My friend was just a PFC.  The Lifers wouldn't give him no stripes.
'Cause he'd stand up and wouldn't take no shit.  Something the Lifers didn't like.
He carried an M-60 machine gun, and I can tell you by the sound
Was it ours or theirs that split the air when a machine gun begins to pound."
He said "I listened close and I didn't like it!  I knew something wasn't right!
There weren't enough American guns for November to put up a fight!
All Chi Coms, AKs, and RPGs!  November was catching hell!
But I listened close - heard a machine gun fire!  A sixty I could tell!"

He said "The Lieutenant was laying next to me as we lay in our bushwack site,
Too far away to give any aid...it was November's to run or fight.
I said 'Sir!  There's a sixty there!  Somebody still ain't quit!'
But the VC just kept pouring it on - that one lone sixty in the midst of it.

He said "Battalion went out to search the area as soon as daylight come,
But to no one's surprise the ones alive was only those that run.
They found my friend blowed back in his hole!  The only man to stand and do his part -
Yeah, the Lifers didn't like him!  But they couldn't see into his heart."

Well it's strange the things a man can hear on a dark and lonely street.
I'd just gone out for some groceries.  Not looking for a brother to meet.
Not thinking about too much at all.  Just strolling on along.
Now here I was with a story to tell - if I could put it in a song.
Well there are men who will judge from prejudice, we see them all around..
But you just can't see in the heart of a man 'til it's time to stand his ground
Yeah, it's an easy thing to judge a man.  You can pick any man apart!
But you just can't know 'til it's time to show the depths of a brother's heart.