TITLE: Songs of SEA and Other Places, Other Things w/Stag Bar Supplement

AUTHOR/COMPILER: [John Piowaty?]

BRANCH OF SERVICE: Air Force

UNIT/AGENCY:

DATE: After 1968

PLACE: Del Rio, Texas

NOTE: 86 songs, poems, and narratives, some with notes. Stag Bar Supplement has 21 additional songs (separate notes below). Some of the song texts and images used in this book are directly copied from Stovepipe Serenade 318FIS.

Good general notes and list of songbooks

CONTENTS:

The U.S. Air Force [Off We Go into the Wild Blue Yonder]

SONGS OF SEA

1. The Doumer Bridge Blues

Note: "This song was written in October 1967 by Captain Robert Middleton. Bob flew an entire tour of 100 NVN missions while TDY from Japan. The Doumer was first hit on 11 August 1967."

2. The Red River Valley

Tune: Red River Valley

Note: "Teak Flight suffered the loss of its leader several times in succession. The call sign was finally retired, honored by those who had used it."

3. Twelve Days of Combat

Tune: The Twelve Days of Christmas

4. Pop Goes the Weasel

Tune: Pop Goes the Weasel

Note: "The Weasels in their 'F' Model Thuds were usually first in, last out. Balls of brass and that big around!"

5. On Top of the Pop Up

Tune: On Top of Old Smokey

6. Don't Send Me to Hanoi

Tune: Winchester Cathedral

7. Where Have All the Old Heads Gone?

Tune: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

8. Dashing Through the Sky

Tune: Jingle Bells

9. Our Leaders

Tune: Manana

10. One Hundred Missions

Tune: When Johnny Comes Marching Home

11. The Thanh Hoa Bridge

Tune: The Strawberry Roan

12. Up in That Valley

Tune: Down in the Valley

13. Will the MIGs Come Out to Play?

Tune: My Indiana Home

14. Republic's Ultra Hog

Tune: Wabash Cannonball

Note: "Like all pilots, Thud drivers reserve the right to bad mouth their own bird, and everybody else's. Of course, these rights belong to no one else! The Thud is something like a Greyhound bus--on a long, downhill straightaway nothing can catch it."

15. The Thud Driver's Theme

Tune: Whiffenpoof Song

16. Boozin' Buddies

Note: Two verses of "A Fighter Pilot Lay Dying" and two of "We Are the Boys Who Fly High in the Sky"

17. Wild Weasel

Tune: Sweet Betsy from Pike

Note: "The 'bears', the LWO's who rode the back seats of the F-105F's, rank high in the estimation of all who flew north. A calm call of 'No threats' did a lot for us strike pilots."

18. Wingman's Lament [I'm a Lousy Thud Wingman]

Tune: Sweet Betsy from Pike

19. Hallelujah [Save a Fighter Pilot's Ass]

Tune: Throw a Nickel on the Drum

20. I Wanted Wings (SEA Version)

21. Oh, Little Town of Ho Chi Minh

Tune: Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem

22. F-105 Alma Mater

Tune: High Above Cayuga's Waters

Note: "Found this at the first stateside River Rat gathering at Wichita, 1969. Author??"

23. The Ho Chi Minh Trail

Tune: The Navajo Trail

24. The Battle of 18.23

Tune: The Battle of New Orleans

25. Tchepone

Tune: Strawberry Roan

26. 160 VC in the Open

27. Armed Recce

Tune: The Fastest Gun Around

Note: "The preceding three songs are from Songs of the In-Country War by Captain Toby Hughes, 12th TFW, Cam Ranh Bay AB, RVN"

28. Untitled

Note: [Narrative about Thud flight taking off.]

"Written in the cockpit of a Thud while sitting spare in the arming area at Tauhli [sic], September 1967."

29. The Birdmen

Note: Biblical parody, written by Captain Joe Matthews

AND OTHER PLACES

1. Come and Join the Air Force [Air Corps Lament]

Note: "It is interesting to note that the version appearing in Songs of the Army Flyers which was published in 1935 and those in the books published during the Korean War are practically identical. Instead of a Fokker shooting you down, it's a MIG-15. The verses above are from the following books: Repulsive Rhapsodies, GI Songs, Songs of the Army Flyers, Songs of Nellis AFB and Songs of the 357th ."

2. Strafin' Round the Mountain

Tune: She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain

Note: " Songs of the 8th Fighter Wing by Lt. 'Rosie' Rosencrans"

3. Fighter Pilots [There Are No Fighter Pilots down in Hell]

4. Here's to the Regular Air Force [Call Out the Goddamn Reserves]

Tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

Note: "The first verse and chous of this song appear in Songs of the Friendly 8th . Since they are sung to the same tune and are in the same spirit as the song from the 58th Fighter-Bomber Wing's Repulsive Rhapsodies , there are hereby combined."

5. The Commies Lament

Tune: Clementine

6. Ten Thousand Dollars

Tune: Wreck of the Old 97

7. U.S. Air Force Heaven

Tune: Big Rock Candy Mountain

8. Tiptanks and Tailpiles

Tune: Bless 'Em All

Note: " Songs of the 8th Fighter Wing "

9. The Po River Valley

Tune: Red River Valley

10. Old Number Nine

11. The Passing Pilot [Beside a Belgian Water Tank]

Tune: The Dying Hobo

Note: " Songs of the Army Flyers "

12. Beneath a Bridge in Sicily

Tune: The Dying Hobo

Note: "'GI Songs'"

13. Beneath a Korean Water Fall

Tune: The Dying Hobo

Note: " Songs of the 357th Fighter Squadron "

With "Bells of Hell" chorus

14. Stand to Your Glasses

Note: "This is, perhaps, the original of 'Stand to Your Glasses." Not a pilot's song, it was probably written in India during a plague epidemic."

15. Stand to Your Glasses

Note: "Verses of this song appear as part of several other songs included in this collection. This is believed to be close to the original song which came out of the first world war, and is copied in its entirety from Songs of the Army Flyers. "

16. Stand to Your Glasses

Note: " Songs My Mother Never Taught Me "

Six verses of "A Poor Aviator Lay Dying" and two of "Stand to Your Glasses"

17. Boozin' Buddies

Tune: Tarpaulin Jacket

Bosom Buddies

Note: "This song has been handed down from the first world war. Three versions of it will be found in this book. Today, however, it is usually sung in the form shown below, which is sung by the 20th Fighter Wing and appears in the following song collections: Songsof the 8th Fighter-Bomber Wing, Songs of the 325th Fighter-Int. Squadron ."

18. The Handsome Young Airman

Tune: Tarpaulin Jacket

Note: "From The American Songbag , edited by Carl Sandburg. Mr. Sandburg says about this World War I song: 'One of several in the R.W. Gordon collection, this version...is from Abbe Niles, who comments on how landlubber songs often are in active duty on the high seas and vice versa. "Any living tune is a jack of all trades. This variant of Tarpaulin Jacket ten years ago (1917) on the flying fields was current among men who had never heard its original."'"

19. A Poor Aviator Lay Dying

Tune: Tarpaulin Jacket

Note: "This version, with one or two minor changes, appears in the following books: GI Songs, Songs of SOC [sic], Songs of the Army Flyers ."

20. Barnacle Bill the Pilot

Tune: Barnacle Bill the Sailor

Note: " The Three Hats , Volume I"

21. Blackbirds

Tune: Bye Bye Blackbird

22. I Wanted Wings

23. Wreck of the Old 97

Tune: Wreck of the Old 97

Note: " Songs My Mother Never Taught Me "

24. Co-Pilot's Lament

Tune: The Cowboy's Lament

Note: " The Three Hats , Volume I"

25. Pusan U

Tune: Sioux City Sue

Note: "'Pusan U' seems to have originated with the Korean Warriors and was evidently a universal favorite. It appears in the following song books: Songs of the Friendly 8th, Songs My Mother Never Taught Me, Repulsive Rhapsodies ."

26. Itazuke Tower

Tune: Wabash Cannon Ball

Note: Appears to be Oscar Brand version

27. "G" Suits and Parachutes

Tune: Bell Bottom Trousers

Note: " Repulsive Rhapsodies and GI Songs "

28. Cigareets and Sake

Tune: Cigareets and Whiskey and Wild, Wild Women

29. Sidi Slimane

30. Air Force 801

Tune: Wabash Cannon Ball

Note: " Songs of the 8th Fighter Wing , by Captain William F. 'Romeo' McCrystal"

31. Give Me Operations

32. Save a Fighter Pilot's Ass [Throw a Nickel on the Grass]

Tune: Throw a Nickel on the Drum

Note: " Songs My Mother Never Taught Me "

With "It Was Midnight in Korea" opening

33. Air Corps Lament

Tune: Battle Hymn of the Republic

Note: " Songs of the 357th FIS "

34. Irish Airman

Note: "'An Irish Airman Foresees His Death' by William Butler Yeats"

35. Air Force Hymn

Tune: Quebec

Note: "Words by Many Hamilton, 1915. Copied from Air Force Times , 16 October 1954"

36. There Was a Little Bird

AND OTHER THINGS

1. Lili Marlene

2. The Lady in Red [O'Leary's Bar]

3. Hail Britannia

4. The Mouse [The Liquor Was Spilled on the Barroom Floor]

5. Auralee

6. Father's Grave

7. Beer, Beer, Beer

8. Let's Have a Party

9. Rye Whisky

10. My Wild Irish Rose

11. Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl

12. Show Me the Way to Go Home

13. Titanic

14. Good Old Mountain Dew

15. Waltzing Matilda

16. The Cowboy's Lament

17. Dinah [I've Been Working on the Railroad

18. Virgin Sturgeon

19. I Used to Work in Chicago

20. Whiffenpoof Song

TITLE: Stag Bar Supplement to Songs of SEA, and Other Places, and Other Things.

AUTHOR/COMPILER: [John Piowaty]

BRANCH OF SERVICE: Air Force

UNIT/AGENCY:

DATE: After 1968

PLACE: Del Rio, Texas

SOURCE: Chip Dockery (purchased at River Rats reunion)

NOTE: 21 songs

CONTENTS:

1. Sammy Small

2. I Love My Wife

3. Mary Ann Burns

4. Sally

5. Adeline Schmidt

6. Horse Shit [There Was a Pilot of Great Renown]

7. The Thud Battle Hymn [We Fly Our Fucking Thuds at Ten Thousand Fucking Feet

8. Spanish Guitar

9. Shit Hot from Korat

Tune: Sweet Betsy from Pike

Note: "Major Gordie McLeod loaned me his copy of Chum Chim for this book."

10. Nelly Darling

11. Sammy Small (SEA Version)

12. O'Reilly's Daughter

13. The Camel

14. Cats on the Roof Top

15. The Bloody Great Wheel

16. No Balls at All

17. Roll Me Over

18. Ring Dang Doo

19. The Scotch Wedding [The Ball of Kerrie Muir]

20. Call Out the Army and the Navy [I Don't Want to Join the Army]

21. Roll Your Leg Over

NOTES UPDATED: 11 April 2025