Stand One Minute In My Ears

I pulled my duty in the field A young man posted by the guns Each morning down the line they spoke And the big ones opened up like suns It wasn't combat, wasn't glory Just drills and dust and practiced thunder But the sound still found its way inside And left a ringing I can't outrun There's a million more who stood like me Who carried home the sound Some pulled the lanyard, some stood watch But the ringing holds its ground This is the sound that never ends The wound that no one sees Six-three-four-six behind my eyes A reveille that won't cease So stand one minute in my ears Now you can hear it too They stamped me fit and sent me home With papers saying nothing's wrong But something stayed inside my skull A tone that's rung there all along From every motor pool and flight line From ship decks down to desert sand We carry our relentless notes The world can't hear behind our eyes This is the sound that never ends The wound that no one sees Six-three-four-six behind my eyes A reveille that won't cease So stand one minute in my ears Now you can hear it too Now you can hear it too To every soldier, sailor, airman, guard who carries this You are not imagining the noise Millions of us, and no two of us hear the same sound Here, take my headset, stand my watch a while This is the sound that never ends The wound that no one sees Six-three-four-six behind my eyes A reveille that won't cease So stand one minute in my ears Hear what we've been carrying Now you can hear it too The sound that never ends Now you can hear it too The sound that never ends Now you can hear it too