Intro: C G F C 
C                  G  
16 years old when I went to the war 
  F                      C  
To fight for a land fit for heroes 
C                     G 
God on my side, and a gun in my hand, 
F                     C 
Chasing my days down to zero, 
C                             G 
And I marched and I fought and I bled and I died, 
F                     C 
And I never did get any older, 
C                            G 
But I knew at the time that a year in the line, 
F                         C 
Is a long enough life for a soldier, 

C                          G     
We all volunteered, and we wrote down our names, 
F                        C                          
And we added two years to our ages, 
C                  G 
Eager for life and ahead of the game, 
F                  C  
Ready for history's pages, 
C                                 G 
And we brawled and we fought and we whored 'til we stood, 
F                       C 
Ten thousand shoulder to shoulder, 
C                            G 
A thirst for the Hun, we were food for the gun, 
    F                       C                     
And that's what you are when you're soldiers, 

C                             G 
I heard my friend cry, and he sank to his knees, 
F                     C 
Coughing blood as he screamed for his mother, 
      C                     G    
And I fell by his side, and that's how we died, 
F                         C 
Clinging like kids to each other, 
      C                      G 
And I lay in the mud and the guts and the blood, 
      F                    C 
And I wept as his body grew colder, 
      C                        G 
And I called for my mother and she never came, 
          C                    G 
Though it wasn't my fault and I wasn't to blame, 
     B                  G 
The day not half over and ten thousand slain, 
    C                  G 
And now there's nobody remembers our names, 
    B                  G 
And that's how it is for a soldier.