Ballad of the Columbia Eagle

Gather round I’ll tell a story
About a man I know
And what he did across the ocean
Half a century ago
Death was raining from the skies
All over Vietnam
Al and Clyde decided
They had to try to stop the bombs
These two young men signed up
To join the merchant marine
Horrified by what they heard
Along with what they’d seen
They began to have discussions
They found a common goal
They’d join the crew of the Columbia Eagle
And they’d take control

The ship was full of napalm
Heading across the sea
To be loaded onto planes
And be dropped upon the country
To burn the skin off people
Beneath it at the time
They vowed to break the law
To prevent a greater crime
They thought they’d spend their lives in prison
Or more likely they would die
But Clyde and Al agreed that
At least they had to try
To sail to Cambodia
With all the napalm, as well
Where it might remain forever
The bombs that never fell

They carried out their plan
And they didn’t slip
Just two guns between them
But soon they ran the ship
They brought it to neutral waters
By Sihanoukville
That these bombs might never
Be sent to maim and kill
But that’s not how it ended
The next thing that they knew
Sihanouk was overthrown
There was a military coup
Clyde McKay died in the jungle
And with so many of his peers
In a California prison
Al Glatkowski spent eight years

The ship was not off course
By much more than a bit
The future of the folly
Perhaps they didn’t change it
But while the blood was flowing
And most people spent their days
Maybe marching in the streets
Or just joining the rate race
There are those among us
Who can say they really tried
Who did everything they possibly could
To stop the fratricide
If you see a big white beard
On the central-eastern shore
He might be a mutineer
Who tried to stop the war

Gather round I’ll tell a story
About a man I know
And what he did across the ocean
Half a century ago