This is an epic song for an epic generation. My generation saw World War II veterans as our principals, teachers, scout masters and other authority figures. Today they are passing onto the next life. This is not a celebration of war but of the men and women who bond with each other through the experiences of their military service. You don’t even have to like your teammate to die for him. It’s a military thing…
I always marveled at how you define your age
And I’ll admit a little bit of contempt crept in
The battles. The battles. The hills you fought to climb.
The men you really hated but you couldn’t leave behind
The bullet promised then
Is the cancer promised soon
When you came home you never brought it up
I wanted to know, but you thought it better unshared
The battles. The battles. The men I’ll never know.
Memories left behind, on a bloody field of snow
And your battles never end, they’re pushed away
Memories of brothers, never forgotten in time
The brother from your past
Will greet you at the gate
I never saw the pride until the years raced gone
And now the things I scoffed at grip my throat
The battles. The battles. The blood you had to spill
And freedom’s gift delivered in shoes I’ll never fill
And our battles never end, they only change
The noble blood of giants reduced to tears of lesser men
The byword of today
The verse on which we were built
Dancing with death is terminal
Same winner ev’ry time
And their battles never end, they only change
Once a hill of dirt, now a mountain of mortality
Nightmares of the father
Become reality for the son
