Let My Tears Be Still

[Verse 1:]
My name is Lieutenant Colonel William Todd
I flew the 101st Airborne in '42
You may think that you've met veterans like me before
but you don't have a clue.

[Verse 2:]
I flew Korea in the war you probably forgot
I gave 40 years of damn near all I got
I watched some of my closest friends die on foreign land
I still hear their screams at night.

[Chorus:]
So don't you wipe away my tears
I've earned them through all the years
Just let ‘em roll down like a stream upon a hill
Let my tears be still.

[Verse 3:]
I met Jean Ann in a photograph in '44
I swore she'd be the girl to take my last name
52 years passed til the Lord took her away
but I still see Jean everyday.

[Verse 4:]
At the end of my rope as I lay here in this bed
Thoughts and prayers of my family circle through my head
I pray when the Lord opens up the pearly gates wide
that I'll see my Jean standing there in the light.