Galveston Bay — Bruce Springsteen

For fifteen years Le Bin Son Fought side by side with the Americans In the mountains and deltas of Vietnam In 75 Saigon fell and he left his command And brought his family to the promised land

Seabrook, Texas and the small towns in the Gulf of Mexico It was delta country and reminded him of home He worked as a machinist, put his money away And bought a shrimp boat with his cousin And together they harvested Galveston Bay

In the mornin fore the sun come up Hed kiss his sleepin daughter Steer out through the channel And cast his nets into the water

Billy Sutter fought with Charlie Company In the highlands of Quang Tri He was wounded in the battle of Chu Lai Shipped home in 68

There he married and worked the gulf fishing grounds In a boat thatd been his fathers In the morning hed kiss his sleeping son And cast his nets into the water

Billy sat in front of his TV as the South fell And the communists rolled into Saigon He and his friends watched as the refugees came Settled on the same streets and worked the coast theyd grew up on Soon in the bars around the harbor was talk Of America for Americans Someone said You want em out, you got to burn em out. And brought in the Texas Klan

One humid Texas night there were three shadows on the harbor Come to burn the Vietnamese boats into the sea In the fires light shots rang out Two Texans lay dead on the ground Le stood with a pistol in his hand

A jury acquitted him in self-defense As before the judge he did stand But as Le walked down the courthouse steps Billy said My friend youre a dead man.

One late summer night Le stood watch along the waterside Billy stood in the shadows His K-bar knife in his hand And the moon slipped behind the clouds Le lit a cigarette, the bay was still as glass As he walked by Billy stuck his knife into his pocket Took a breath and let him pass

In the early darkness Billy rose up Went into the kitchen for a drink of water Kissed his sleeping wife Headed into the channel And cast his nets into the water Of Galveston Bay