Run on home, baby brother, don'tcha leave your aging mother
Choose yourself another occupation: cafe or a filling station
Let me worry 'bout the nation's Security
Run on home and do your graduatin'
Learn about administratit'
Leave the mud 'n' blood 'n' guts to me
My little baby brother wants to follow in the footsteps
Of his older brother, brother that is me
But I gotta warn you buddy, these footsteps
Get awf'lly muddy in the United States Marines
My little baby brother, there's no other than my brother
He's my mother's one and only little boy
His skin's as white as cotton and he's spoiled plumb rotten
Yet he wants to run away and join the corps
Run on home, baby brother..
Now he's got another summer 'fore he gets his diploma
And can get a right good paying job
But he's been reading signs and posters and he wants to be a soldier
Wants to quit his school and be a swab
My little baby brother, he's too young to try to suffer
Through the basic training at ole Paris Isle
No, he won't last a minute up in front of sergeant Bennett
You're my baby brother, mother's only child
Run on home, baby brother..