A Defense Department study urged that the US military become tobacco free, the study no doubt written by the same people who say kids should not climb trees or play on playground jungle bars. Men who go into combat don’t care about their health forty years down the line, they care about the next forty minutes. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and the Defense Department insisted it would not implement the no tobacco policy. Anyone who has ever watched an old WWII movie will be struck by the way wounded soldiers would ask the medic or the Padre for a cigarette while on a stretcher, waiting to be evacuated to the aid station.
Yes GIs craved smokes even when they got hit
From Padres who asked them to pray
And nobody said that they really should quit
For they knew they could die the next day
They used them for money right after the war
When nylons and Luckies were king
From whiskey and wine and to ladies galore
It sure beat White Christmas by Bing
When shells were still flying and Tigers still lurked
Round the corner with gun pointed south
And the GI pinned down needed something that worked
Like a panzerfaust punch to the mouth
But the days of the terror and pain were now past
And the ruins of Europe lay waste
And the rations held Luckies or Camels that cast
A glow of contentment and taste
Those days are now distant but memories still
To those who survived to tell tales
Of the battling bastards the Krauts could not kill
Leaving debt much too big for the scales
But that was then. Now there are those who would deny our military the freedom to smoke if they wanted to, even as their Commander-In-Chief, President Barack Obama, admits he sneaks a cigarette now and then. No, today, if you smoke, you are a criminal, a danger to society, to be scorned and vilified by the tobacco police and the sheep who listen to them.
They’re against the folks
Who like their smokes
They’re makin’ them a criminal
But for some blokes
There’s different strokes
The lesson here’s subliminal
If you’re Joe Doaks
The butt of jokes
A redneck like yo mama
You take your pokes
And nasty jokes
But at least you don’t sneak ‘em like that smiley hopey changey guy Obama