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Present-Day Lyrics
I Wouldn't Give A Bean
To Be A Fancy Pants Marine
I'd Rather Be A
Dog Face Soldier Like I Am
I Wouldn't Trade My Old-O D's
For All The Navy's Dungarees
For I'm The Walking Pride
Of Uncle Sam
On Army Posters That I Read
It Says "Be All That You Can"
So They're Tearing Me Down
To Build Me Over Again
I'm Just A Dog Face Soldier
With A Rifle On My Shoulder
And I Eat Raw Meat
For Breakfast E'V'RY Day
So Feed Me Ammunition
Keep Me In Third Division
Your Dog Face Soldier's A-Okay
History of the “Dogface Soldier”
World War II was not known as a great "singing war"; but it has been said by a famous general that if all the soldiers had known "Dogface Soldier", it would have been. General Lucian K. Truscott called it “the best battle song of the war”.
The story of “Dogface Soldier” is one of the strange tales of the war. Written early in 1942 by two musically illiterate infantry men as a protest against the very commercial war songs then being published, it was sung around among a few friends and soon forgotten – by the authors. They were sent to other branches of service, one in South America and the other in the Pacific. Meanwhile the song had been carried to North Africa by a fellow with a guitar.
It struck home – catching and spreading from mouth to mouth with no help from radio, sheet music, or records. During the amphibious invasions of Italy “Dogface Soldier” surpassed all other songs as a great morale ionic, and was actually sung during battle – not just neat it, or before it, but in it!
One of the “Dogface Soldiers” who chanted the tune was Audie Murphy who was destined to become America’s most decorated soldier of World War II. In preparing the film of his career, “To Hell And Back”, it was natural that Universal-International pictures should include the authentic and boisterous ballad of the foot soldier.