Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition And We'll All Stay Free

an oldie but a goodie.

Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition (1942)

The song describes a chaplain ("sky pilot") being with some fighting men who are under attack from an enemy. He is asked to say a prayer for the men who were engaged in firing at the oncoming planes. The chaplain puts down his Bible, mans one of the ship's gun turrets and begins firing back, saying, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition".






Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition
And we'll all stay free
Praise the Lord and swing into position
Can't afford to be a politician
Praise the Lord, we're all between perdition
And the deep blue sea

I knew this sounded familiar, but I had to look it up again to refresh my memory.

It was about Captain W.A. Maguire

On December 7, 1941 — which President Franklin D. Roosevelt would memorably name “a date which will live in infamy” on the following day — hundreds of Japanese warplanes made a deadly surprise attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. When the crew of the heavy cruiser USS New Orleans rushed on deck they saw devastation all around them. Not far away, a huge cloud of smoke was rising from the battleship USS Arizona and it was sinking. Beyond the Arizona, the USS Oklahoma was rolling over. Sailors were jumping from its sides.

Another nearby battleship, the USS West Virginia, was badly damaged and sagging amidships. The New Orleans was docked for repairs when the attack occurred. As usual during repairs, the ship’s electricity was temporarily coming through a power cable from the shore. Soon after they came on deck, the crew began firing the cruiser’s guns at Japanese planes. But when they needed more ammunition they discovered that the power cable to shore had been cut, making the electric ammunition hoist inoperable.

Undeterred, the men formed lines and began carrying the heavy shells to the guns by hand. As they did, ship chaplain Lieutenant Howell M. Forgy walked along the deck encouraging them, shouting “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!” The Japanese pilots eventually flew away after sinking nine U.S. ships and damaging 21 others. Their attack killed 2,350 Americans, including 1,177 sailors on the USS Arizona.

Link

a reply to: Klassified

A different age. This was a different America.

a reply to: infolurker
Indeed it was.

a reply to: infolurker

Here ya go boss.

a reply to: randyvs

Loved the movie, hated that song though.

I think this might be tongue in cheek. Killing people goes against what the bible teaches, so the chaplain putting down his bible to kill people means he's ignoring the bible (putting it down) when he goes to man the machine gun, all while praising the Lord while ignoring him.

It's tongue in cheek saying those who fight wars are hypocrites if they also claim to believe in the bible.

That's my take on it at least.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

Imagine dragons, I agree with you. Chaplain drops his religion
then tried to meld it with patriotism.

a reply to: randyvs

Wow! We agree on something for once, there's hope after all!

originally posted by: 3NL1GHT3N3D1
a reply to: randyvs

Wow! We agree on something for once, there's hope after all!

Ya, I wouldn't get to carried away.

LOL