The Mate Beside You

Song (Southern Rock-style) about military life, how you are turned from a teenager into an adult 'overnight'. The hardships, the friendships, the struggles leaving military life and trying to adjust to life on Civvie Street as they do not know, or understand what you have been through. Hope you like it. ‪@RichardPoile63‬ Verse 1] Calloused hands on a cold steel frame Just boys in boots without a name Mud on the ground, sweat in the eyes Drill sergeant breaking down all the lies From green teenagers to hardened men Pushed to the edge and back again We learned a trade, we learned the grind Left our boyhood far behind [Chorus] It wasn't for the crown, wasn't for the land It was for the mate with a gun in his hand Through the smoke and the fire and the driving rain We shared the blood, we shared the pain Thick and thin, to the very end A brother's life is the line we defend Yeah, the mate beside you is the reason why We stand together or together we die [Verse 2] Rattling trucks on a dirt-road track Knowing the man who has your back Tracers lighting the midnight sky No time to ask the reason why Forget the flags and the speeches made In the open ditch where the bodies laid The only truth in the blinding flash Is keeping your brother from turning to ash [Chorus] It wasn't for the crown, wasn't for the land It was for the mate with a gun in his hand Through the smoke and the fire and the driving rain We shared the blood, we shared the pain Thick and thin, to the very end A brother's life is the line we defend Yeah, the mate beside you is the reason why We stand together or together we die [Guitar Solo] [Bridge] Now I sit in a quiet room Working a job in the morning gloom People around me talk and stare They don't know what we carried there No one understands the quiet code The weight of a heavy, unseen load Civvie street is a foreign coast Walking among the living and ghost [Chorus] It wasn't for the crown, wasn't for the land It was for the mate with a gun in his hand Through the smoke and the fire and the driving rain We shared the blood, we shared the pain Thick and thin, to the very end A brother's life is the line we defend Yeah, the mate beside you is the reason why We stand together or together we die [Outro] Living the best that we know how Holding the bond that keeps us now To the brothers left and the ones still here The noise grows quiet, the memory clear Standing by you... Through thick and thin.