four years damnation

I joined the Navy in Eighty-one
I was told it would be fun.
Boot camp was hard, but not so bad.
At least I had stories to tell dad.
Machinist's mate "A" school, in Great Lakes,
turned out to be a big mistake.
I cought pneumonia, and damn near died,
marching along that cold lakeside,
all the while wearing nothing but starch
and hearing "If you can stand, you can march"
from fat,lazy chiefs who spent the day
In their heated offices, hard at play.
then came graduation, and to the fleet
and San Diego, Thirty-second-street.
On the USS Prairie, a destroyer tender.
She was in the yards, so we had to mend her.
Six months in drydock, working double shifts
fixing boilers, turbines, pumps, valves, and lifts
and when it all was over and the ship was overhauled
out of my division, to the mess decks I was called.
In the scullery for ninety-odd days
and not even the slightest increase in pay.
then to the tech library I was to go.
working for a bible-thumping jackass PO.
who refused to reccomend me, even though I earned it
but because I didn't go to his church, he spurned it.
Nine months later, free again, and back into the heat
standing six-on-six watches, sweating to the beat
six months WESTPAC, standing watch in engineering.
and doing routine maintenance on After Steering.
all over the Pacific we sailed and steamed and such
what did I see? Well, I didn't see much.
soon it was all over, and I was sent to new ship
The USS Texas, for another WESPAC trip.
The "Nuclear Navy"- what a bunch of crap!
I traded a tender, to sail on THIS death trap?
Guided Missle Cruiser, with a nuclear power plant
and a bunch of psychotic officers with brains the size of ants
no armor, obsolete radar, and out of date missle racks
we're professional casualties if we ever get attacked!
got written up within my first month onboard
for being late to quarters, an offence often ignored
when committed by those who kiss the senior-chief's butt
but for me it was but the first of many doors shut.
i would sweat the year out, fighting back the itch
to kill that dirty-rotten, backstabbing son-of-a-bitch
I got busted down a stripe, for one day on a whim
I told that miserable cocksucker exactly what I thought of him.
At long last my four years expired, and all had come to pass
as I walked down the pier that final time I turned and said
US Navy- KISS MY ASS!