I did not get out of the trenches unscathed

There's lingering damage I'll take to my grave

Like nerve gas poison and agent orange

The wages of high risk are part of my story

What kind of madness took ahold of me

To shoot another's blood into my willing vein

No I would never do that voluntarily

I heard a demon tell me to and I obeyed but

I don't take orders from the war room anymore

This is one recruit who surrenders

I don't take orders from the war room anymore

Now I am my own defender

I keep receiving a distorted command

And if I hadn't given up I'd surely follow

Back into the tangle of expendable men

A suicidal mission set against the wrong foe

I don't take orders from the war room anymore

This is one recruit who surrenders

I don't take orders from the war room anymore

Now I am my own defender

I may have turned yellow but did not betray

My old friends still battling out in the fray

Am I lily-livered Now I'm a beginner

I'm damned all to hell and I am delivered

Sometimes I'm tempted to forget myself

Jump back into the skirmish as a mercenary

But what little time my poor soul may have left

I'd rather that I live it in sanctuary

I don't take orders from the war room anymore

This one recruit who surrenders

I don't take orders from the war room anymore

Now I am my own defender

I don't take orders from the war room anymore

This is one recruit who surrenders

I don't take orders from the war room anymore

I don't take orders