Napalm Sticks to Kids

"Napalm Sticks to Kids" is a 1972 song about the Vietnam War by Covered Wagon Musicians,[1] a musical ensemble of active-duty military personnel stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base. "Napalm" is the twelfth song (sixth on the B-side) from Covered Wagon Musicians' album We Say No to Your War!; released by Paredon Records, the song is 4:18 long.[2]  Music historian Justin Brummer, editor of the Vietnam War Song Project wrote in History Today that the song provided "an unflinching picture of the war" in which 388,000 long tons (394,000 t) of Napalm B were dropped on Indochina between 1963 and 1973.[1]

According to the band, United States Army and Air Force personnel assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division originally wrote the words to "Napalm Sticks to Kids" while stationed in South Vietnam. Each person wrote a verse about actions in which they participated, "express[ing] their collective bitterness toward the military that had turned them into murderers." When one of those Vietnam veterans—Sergeant Mike Elliot—was assigned to Mountain Home AFB, he had the lyrics published in the first issue of the Helping Hand newsletter, from where it spread throughout the military world.[3]

Carol Burke, a professor at the United States Naval Academy (USNA) wrote about "Napalm Sticks to Kids" in the context of military cadences. Since the mid-19th century, cadences have been for improving morale, unit cohesion, and the weight of military labor. Burke observed that "offensiveness drives cadences", noting examples of insubordination, sexual objectification of women, and the celebration of collateral damage; General William Westmoreland explained these topics: "Gallows humor is, after all, merely a defense mechanism for men engaged in perilous and distasteful duties."[4]

"The Terror of War" by Nick Ut

The "Napalm Sticks to Kids" cadence has been taught at training to all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Its verses delight in the application of superior US technology that rarely if ever actually hits the enemy; "the [singer] fiendishly narrates in first person one brutal scene after another: barbecued babies, burned orphans, and decapitated peasants in an almost cartoonlike litany."[4] The phrase was used as a slogan by anti-war protesters in the US, often accompanied by Nick Ut's Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, "The Terror of War" (June 8, 1972).[5] Burke interpreted the military call-and-response work song as a rebuke thereof, an effort to self-transform the servicemember from the demonized "baby-killer" to the haunted and broken veteran.[4]

"Napalm Sticks to Kids" was employed at the USNA from the early 1970s until the late 1980s when efforts were made to prohibit its singing.[4] During pre-production of the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman, the screenplay was sent to the US Navy for approval in the hopes that the military would support production of the film. The Navy refused, citing as inaccurate: the film's vulgarity, offensive language, and amorality—including saying that "Napalm Sticks to Kids" was no longer used by the early 1980s. Writer and producer Douglas Day Stewart knew otherwise; not only was he a former Naval officer, but during his research, an active Naval-officer trainer dictated "Napalm Sticks to Kids" to Stewart. In response to the Navy's claims, Stewart traveled to Naval Air Station Pensacola and interviewed a group of officer candidates who all confirmed that the cadence was still in widespread use. An Officer and a Gentleman did not modify the script to suit the Navy, and so without their support, the film features aviation candidates chanting the running song.[6]

• We Say No to Your War! (PDF) (liner notes), Paredon Records, archived (PDF) from the original on 22 January 2023, retrieved 22 January 2023 – via Smithsonian Folkways, Songs Written and Sung by the Covered Wagon Musicians Active-Duty Air Force People, Mountain Home AFB, Idaho