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THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS BRANCH SONG:
"ESSAYONS"
Essayons, sound out the battle cry
Essayons, we'll win or we'll die
Essayons, there's nothing we won't try..
We're the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers..
Pin the castle on my collar
I've done my training for the team.
You can call me an engineer soldier,
The warrior spirit has been my dream
We are builders, we are fighters!
We are destroyers just as well
There've been doubters who met with the sappers..
And then we blew them all straight to hell
Our brothers fighting on the battlefield
Look to us to point the way
We get there first and then we take the risks
To build the roads and the air strips
And bridge the mighty river streams
We don't care who gets the glory
We're sure of one thing, this we know
Somewhere out there an engineer soldier
Designed the plan for the whole darn show
Essayons whether in war or peace
We will bear our red and our white
Essayons we serve America
And the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers..
Essayons!!
Essayons!!
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Chorus: (Sung after each verse)
We are, we are, we are, we are, the Combat ENGINEER'S
we can, we can, we can, we can, demolish forty beers
Drink up, drink up, drink up, drink up and come along with us
For we don’t give a damn, for any Old Man, who don’t give a damn for us - Hey
Verses:
Now Venus is a statue made entirely out of stone,
She hasn't a fig leaf on her – she is naked to the bone.
On seeing that her arms we gone, two ENGINEERS discoursed,
Of course the darn thing's broken and should be reinforced!
An ENGINEER and a tanker once found a gallon can
Said the tanker to the ENGINEER "Out drink me if you can!"
The tanker took three drinks and died, his face was turning green.
But the ENGINEER kept drinking, it was only gasoline.
Godiva was a lady who through Coventry did ride,
Showing all the villagers her lovely, lily hide
The most observant fellow was an ENGINEER of course,
Was the only one to notice that Godiva rode a horse!
I've come a long, long way she said and I'll go as long and far
with the man who'll help me off my horse and lead me to a bar
The men who helped her off her horse and stood her to a beer,
Were a bleary-eyed surveyor and a drunken ENGINEER!
My father was a miner on the upper Malamute,
My mother was a hostess in a house of ill repute.
When I was only sixteen years, she shouted loud and clear
Get out of the house, become a man, and join the ENGINEERS!
Julius Caesar went to Egypt at the age of 53
Cleopatra’s blood was warm, her heart was young and free
But every night when Julie left her house at 3 o’clock
There was a Roman Engineer awaiting just around the block
Sir Francis Drake and all his men put out for Misery Bay
They heard the Spanish Rum Fleet was heading out that way
But the Engineers had beat them by a night and half a day
And though as drunk as hooligans you still could hear them say
The Air Force and the Navy came to town to have some fun
Down to the taverns where the fiery liquors run
But all they found was broken glass, the Engineers had come
And traded junk filled demo bags for gallon kegs of rum
We lay down all their rolling roads and cut down all their trees
And if the order ever comes, we’d forge the raging seas
When ever they want to sleep awhile, we put them up a town
And we build the blasted bridges so the Infantry won’t drown
We put them over rivers and across the mountain streams
Do everything but tuck them in and wish them pleasant dreams
And when the going’s really tough, and shells do burst our ears
The whole Division’s apt to say, GOD, SEND THE ENGINEERS
We build and blow your bridges and fix your roads up too,
There aren't too many things in life an ENGINEER can't do.
You never seem to need us 'til your minds are filled with fear,
Then the first thing that you call for are the Combat ENGINEERS.
We plan and guard your barriers, and we build your bunkers too,
And each and every war we prove what the ENGINEERS can do.
For in the thick of every fight, the cry has been for years
Come clear the pass, and save our ass, you Combat ENGINEERS.
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ENGINEERS POEM
We lay down their rolling roads
And cut down all the trees;
And if the orders ever came,
We'd forge the raging seas.
Whenever they want to sleep awhile
We put them up a town,
And we build the blasted bridges
So the Infantry won't drown.
We get them over rivers
And across mountain streams
Do everything but tuck them in
And wish them pleasant dreams;
And when the going's really rough
And bombs burst in their ears,
A whole division is apt to pray,
"God, send the Engineers!"
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THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS POEM
They've a song about the Army
The Navy and Marines:
They've got one for the Air Force
The whole darn works it seems.
But they've never taken trouble
Though we've served them all for years,
To write a verse or two
For the Corps of Engineers.
We build their roads and airfields
Their pipelines and their camps,
From underground munitions dumps
To concrete loading ramps.
Before the others get there
We had to break the ground,
And we built it all to suit their needs
Solid, safe and sound.
But the ENGINEERS aren't kicking
For when their moving in,
We know it's just another place
Where we've already been.
If the Army and the Navy
Ever look on Heaven's scene,
'Tis said the streets will be patrolled
By United States Marines.
Now who will guard the streets up there
We aren't disposed to say,
But we offer this suggestion
If they look at things that way:
When the Marines have taken over
In that land that knows no years,
They'll find it designed and built
By the Corps of Engineers!
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THE REGIMENTAL TOAST
HERE'S A HEALTH TO THE ARMY.
AND HERE'S A HEALTH TO OUR CORPS;
HERE'S TO THE FLAG FLYING UP ON THE HILL,
AND THE BIRD FLYING OVER OUR DOOR:
STAND BY WITH YOUR GLASSES ALL BRIMMING,
HERE'S HEALTH, AND HERE'S HOW, AND HERE'S LUCK.
AND HERE'S TO THE CASTLES OF SILVER WE WEAR.
AND "THE EAGLE THAT LOOKS LIKE A DUCK."
This toast was first raised in the fall of 1898 after the Spanish American War by a young Engineer officer at the officers' mess at Fort Totten, (now known as Willets Point), on Long Island, New York. The toast mentions the flag which is the American Flag flown at the Post Headquarters. The "bird flying over the door" and the "eagle that looks like a duck" refer to the relief carving of the crest taken from the seal of the Corps of Engineers. This crest consisted of an eagle, mounted above a banner inscribed with the Engineer Motto "ESSAYONS." Surrounding the eagle and banner was a wreath of oak and laurel branches, oak symbolizing strength and laurel symbolizing accomplishment. Today, this wooden carving resides in the Engineer Museum's Regimental Room, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.
Thanks to: Captain Christopher J. Doniec United States Army Corps of Engineers
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