Cadence Count!!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’d like to hear from former or current military Dopers about the cadence counts they used in basic or advanced training.

I’ll start off with a few:

“I don’t know but I’ve been told
the WACS on Gordon are mighty cold
Yo’ Left (pause) yo’ left (pause) yo’ left,right, left!”
Gotoyour left, etc. (Left was pronounced LAY-EFT)

(For the following use the same cadence as above)

“I don’t know but I’ve heard rumors,
Charlie company’s wearing bloomers”

“If you want a 3 day pass,
you gotta kiss the first sticks ass” (I caught hell for this one!)

More here: http://mudcat.org/mudcatorg.gif

Vets?

2

None of ours were either PC or appropriate. Seriously. The Camp Commandant actually said to our course officer “Glad to hear your troops know how to swear.”

In short:
“Three German Soldiers”
“She’s my Lady in Red” (which we, as the seven women in our troop re-wrote for all of the guys, using names from our own troop)
“The Flying Fortress”

and then two PC ones -

“Do Wah Diddy”
“Iko Iko”…

And one we had specifically for our troop. We were very musical :slight_smile:

3

When I was in basic, my (all female) company was K009. Our CC got a lot of flack about leading a group of female “K9s” so in our cadence, we added the occasional “Woof” and got away with it even though we were only supposed to use “Left-right-left” cadence.

4

I went to a party

and what did we do

We took off our socks

We took off our shoes

We took off our shirts

We took off our pants

I had a hunch

We weren’t going to dance

5

Thanks for the replies!
Keep 'em coming…

6

C-130 rolling down the strip.
Airborne daddies gonna take a little trip.

If that chute don’t open wide.
I got another one by side.

Then a typical “Sound off!” sequence.

One more which I don’t think I can here capture the actual rhythm of was:

Here we go again.
Company: Here we go again.

Same old song again.
Company: Same old song again (etc.)

Marching down the avenue

x more days ‘til we are through.
Left, your left.

Your left, right, left.

Your military left.

Your left your right don’t get outta step your left your right your le-e-eft!

That last lined had to be done with precision else it came across as a jumbled mess.

Source: Navy Basic Training, Great Lakes, IL, summer of 1985.

7

The Marine boyfriend loves him some cadence. He has one in particular that I refuse to let him do in my presence because it gets STUCK in my head. I’ll see if he’ll stop in here later to share it with you.

8

Basic training circa 2002, cadences were very much cleaned up.

Some of my favorites:

I hear you calling, calling to me,
The king of battle, field artillery.

…
The queen of battle, airborne infantry.

Also

Sitting in my foxhole, sharpening my knife
Up jumped the enemy, I had to take his life

Airborne Rangers* lead the way

I hear the choppers coming, they’re hovering overhead
Too late for the wounded, they’ve come to get the dead

There’s quite a few rhyming couplets than can fit to a variety of cadence melodies, my favorite of which is the musical ‘In the early morning rain’

In the early morning rain, in the early morning rain

Got a letter in the mail, go to war or go to jail

I used to date a beauty queen, now I date my M16

I used to wear my faded jeans, now I’m wearing army greens

Set me in a barber’s chair, turned me around I had no hair

Mama, mama don’t you cry, your little boy ain’t gonna die

*The rangers got co-opted into many cadences sung by the very not rangers (myself included). To right this wrong, one of my favorite running cadences is:
R… is for ranger
A…is for everyday
N… is for knowledge
G… is for jumpmaster
E… is for intelligence
R… is for ranger
Fortunately the scroll wearing LTC in one of my PT formations had a sense of humor.

9

Oh, please, please come back and share the naughty ones!

10

HA! Figures you dirty-minded civvies! Okay, this was years ago…

I refuse to post the lyrics, but these may or may not be some of the ones we sang:

Yep we couldswear and offend, in one easy cadence - three of them hidden there…SUPER OFFENSIVE and I can’t believe I ever sung them now…but it was years ago and I was clearly young and stupid (just glad no one has it recorded on Youtube!)

The lady in red one was something like “She’s my lady in Red, we’ve never done it in a bed” and then different rhymes for different colors. We re-wrote it, as I said, to match up with different guys’ names from our troop, so poor Pte. Flegel was getting it on with a bagel and so on…

11

lep, lep,
lep right lep

lep, lep,
lep right lep

Purple headed, cherry poppin, tea baggin’ bitch
Pink puckered poontang, lyin’ in a ditch
Ass plowin’, pussy chowin’, wife sloppin huggy
You ball lappin’ slut sword, swallow my chubby

lep, lep,
lep right lep

lep, lep,
lep right lep

She was workin on a wiener with her 2 big toes
Had one up her ass and one under her nose
She grabbed two more and stuck em in her ears
She’ll said I’ll make ‘em come while I’m chuggin’ this beer

12

My brother told me this one:

Sarge: “Jody’s got your girl and gone!”
Troops: (Jody’s got your girl and gone!)
Sarge: “Am I right or am I wrong?”
Troops: (Am I right or am I wrong?)
Sarge: “Am I right or wrong?”
Troops: You’re right!
Sarge: “Am I right or wrong?”
Troops: You’re right!
Sarge: “Now sound off. . .”
Troops: One… Two… Three… Four…
Troops: One… Two… ThreeFour!

I’m gonna take a three-day pass!
(I’m gonna take a three-day pass!)
I’m gonna kick ol’ Jody’s ass!
(I’m gonna kick ol’ Jody’s ass!)
Sound off . . . .

13

I’m not a man nor did I do any kind of military service, but the Macarena was born as a cadence count. I know a few old fellows who felt robbed when Los del Rio were making money off something which was basically “the property of every barehead who’s ever hitched a rifle in this country’s army, damnit”.

14

A little bird
With a yellow bill
He sat upon
My windowsill
I coaxed him in
With a piece of bread
And then I stomped
His little head

15

We MI types were a little odd:

C-130 rollin down the strip
Airborne Rangers gonna take a little trip
Watch it slip and watch it slide
64 beanies burned alive
747 rolling down the strip
MI Daddy on a TDY trip
Sit down buckle up order a drink
Say “Hey steward whaddaya think?
Whaddaya think about you and I
joinin’ a club called Mile High?”

A tiny mouse
with tiny feet
was standing on
my toilet seat
I pushed him in
I flushed him down
his little head
went round and round.

16

I remember learning the basic cadences and rhythms in Basic Training, but when I got to AIT at Fort Huachucha, they made my head explode. These weren’t your granddaddy’s rhyming couplets. They had melodies, harmonies, bridges, rounds, and one particular cadence where the first and third platoons basically made drum-kit noises with their mouths/voices while the second and fourth platoons rapped or sang. I wish I could remember it.

On that hasn’t been mentioned:
[They say that in the Army, the chow is mighty fine.
A chicken jumped off the table and started marking time.

They say that in the Army, the pay is mighty fine.
They give you a hundred dollars and take back ninety-nine.](http://army-cadence.com/Army-Marching-Cadences.php)

17

I went through basic in 1988 and they were pretty cleaned up by then. I was MI as well and we didn’t call cadence much after basic.

The ones I remember are Tiny Bubbles, Momma Momma and Yellow Ribbon on this webpage:

http://army-cadence.com/Army-Marching-Cadences.php

There were also some about Jody but I don’t remember them very well.

I learned Out Jumped The Monkey before the Army:

http://www.lighthorseaircav.com/hum-jody-calls.html

18

You had a good home and you LEFT (You’re RIGHT!)
You wanna go home but you can’t (You’re RIGHT!)
Sound off (One Two)
Sound off (Three Four)
Sound off (One, Two…Three Four)

19

Marine Corps, Parris Island 1985

***My girl’s a vegetable
She lives in the hospital
But i would do anything
to keep that girl alive Yeah

She got no arms or legs
She gets by on hooks and pegs
But i would do anything
To keep that girl alive Yeah

My girl don’t drink or eat
She falls through the toilet seat
But i would do anything
To keep that girl alive Yeah

One day I’ll play a joke
Pull the cord and watch her choke
But i would do anything
To keep that girl alive Yeah***

20

That would be the one I was referring to, G0sp3l. Thanks, now it’s stuck in my head. :smiley: