chorus and 1st verse
chorus and 1st verse
he is born of the earth on the day he enlists;
 he is sentenced to life on the soil;
 for he' ll march on it, crawl on it, dig in it, sprawl on it-- then we sleep in it after our toil.
be in sand, rock or ice, gravel, mud, or red loam;
 he will fight on it, bravely will die;
 and the crude little cross telling men of his loss- will cry, mutely, to some foreign sky.
he's the tired looking man in the untidy garb;
 weather beaten, footsore with fatigue;
 but his spirit is strong when he sings his songs;
 carrying his burden for league after league-
he will charge in the face of murderous fire;
 crawling forward, attacking through mud;
 when he breaks through their lines, over wire and mines;
 on the point of his bayonet is blood.
the infanteer cont' d
should you meet him, untidy, begrimed, and fatigued;
 don't indulge in unwarranted mirth;
 for this brave infanteer deserves more than your sneers, for, he' s, truly, the salt of the earth--
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the infanteer--pioneer, engineer, canoneer, signaleer, volunteer, etc.
 this song was sent to me by c.
j.'
 tex' lindsay, bravo company, 1 bn rar, 173rd abn bde 65-66, and 8 bn, rar 67-68.
tex has no idea, no recollection of when or where he learnedthis song--he has had in in his records for years, and only thought about it after hearing me singing service songs at a bravo company reunion woolgoolga, nsw, near coffs harbour.
 he also sent me two medieval ballad length songs from an action that he participated in with 8 bn.
 I got this song in the infanteer format from tex.
 the format of this song still reminds me of robert burns style of poetry, and the language seems to date from this period.
 contacting frank o' keefe to see is he was familiar with this song, he commented that it most likely originated in the engineers or pioneers in the mid to late 1700's and from there was taken up by other corps (with altering only the reference to wire pre 1890's and the name of the corps.
 I have not yet had a chance to sing this song to any diggers, but this song is certainly one that well describes the service of anyone in combat corps-or anyone, male or female who has been thrugh recruit training!