They left their childhood on every acre

Question

Hi

I have a question about Billy Joel's song 'Goodbye Saigon'. What does the bold and italic part mean? That Charlie and Baker died? Or that they lost they lost their innocence because they had to kill people? I would say the former one because of 'remember'

Thanks in advance for helping me with this.

And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

Remember Charlie, remember Baker
They left their childhood on every acre
And who was wrong? And who was right?
It didn't matter in the thick of the fight

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Able, Baker, Charlie, ... used to be the beginning of the military "alphabet".

I don't know if that's the reference or not.

Nowadays, it's Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, ...

The references may be to the men of Baker Company and Charlie Company. I have heard of Charlie Company but not Baker Company.

In general it means that the war forced the combatants to grow up fast. They went from boys to men while fighting in that war. Your idea of "loss of innocence" is correct.

CJ

Dokterjokkebrok · Answer

Thank you Jim. <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Clive · Answer

Hi,

It's true that Charlie and Baker were used as the names of US companies.

However, here's another possible interpretation of the verses you have shown us.

'Charlie' was how the American soldiers referred to the enemy.

Thus, remember Charlie, remember Baker could possibly be seen as a reference to to both sides in the conflict.

This seems like a little bit of a stretch, but it certainly fits very, very well with the next line, And who was wrong? And who was right?

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Cong

American soldiers referred to the Vietcong as Victor Charlie or VC. "Victor" and "Charlie" are both letters in the NATO phonetic alphabet. "Charlie" referred to communist forces in general, both Vietcong and PAVN.

Best wishes, Clive

Anonymous · Answer

I think it’s deliberately constructed to mean all of the above- that they lost their innocence and grew up overnight, that they died whilst they were barely adults- many of them were blown to bits leaving not even a body to retrieve - scattered to the winds the only thing that was left to remember was who they had been -their childhood years and very brief adulthood as they were deprived of any future. And as their names are typically American - they stand in for all the American boys lost on Paris Island in that conflict . Lyrics are essentially poetry ~~they contain multiple meanings and interpretations~~ so there isn’t just one right or wrong way to read it- and the more ways you can interpret it the more full and complex the picture becomes- those few words tell the story of both the dead and the living who will always be lost and never innocent again in the same way.

They left their childhood on every acre

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