He was haggard and gray, and he walked with a limp He'd have him a smoke, and he'd take him a sip Born in the summer of twenty-four, son of a veteran of the first world war He entered the service in forty-one, And he didn't come home till the fighting was done Wearing a silver star on his chest, Damn proud to say he was one of the best Twenty-one guns, the stars, the stripes An eye full of tears, and a heart full of pride When you hear that distant bugle play Another old soldier fades away Another old soldier fades away He took a bullet in the hip, outside in Nam. He was back in the field by fifty-one Said Douglass Macarthur, was a man among men And Harry s. Truman, was a horses end Still he never questioned, his uncle Sam When they sent him in, to Vietnam They brought him home in seventy-three On a hundred percent, disability Twenty-one guns, the stars, the stripes An eye full of tears, and a heart full of pride When you hear that distant bugle play Another old soldier fades away Another old soldier fades away He loved this country, with all of his might Right up until the day he died In a crowded ward at the local V.A. Another old soldier fades away Twenty-one guns, the stars, the stripes An eye full of tears, and a heart full of pride When you hear that distant bugle play Another old soldier fades away Another old soldier fades away