http://folklorewiki.lydiafish.us/pmwiki.php/Main/GiveMeOperations

Give Me Operations

Don’t give me a P-38; the props, they counter-rotate
She’s scattered and smitten from Burma to Britain
Don’t give me a P-38, NO!

CHORUS:
Give me operations way out on some lonely atoll
For I am too young to die; I just want to grow old

Don’t give me a P-39; the engine is mounted behind
She’ll tumble and spin, and she'll auger you in
Don’t give me a P-39

CHORUS

Don’t give me a Peter-four-oh; it’s a hell of an airplane, I know
A ground-looping bastard, you’re sure to get plastered
Don’t give me a Peter-four-oh

CHORUS

Don’t give me an 86D, with rockets, radar, and AB
She’s fast, I don’t care; she blows up in mid-air
Don’t give me an 86D

CHORUS

Don't give me an F-84, she's just a ground-loving whore
She'll whine and she'll wheeze and make straight for the trees
Don't give me an F-84

Just give me operations way out on some lonely atoll
For I am too young to die; I just want to grow old

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BTW: to clear things up a little for the civilian (and bearing in mind that this is only as far as I can tell, what with the differences in era and branch of service), the song's protagonist is saying: don't make me fly a warplane because any and all of them will get me killed, just give me a desk job in some squadron's Operations office even if it's far out on some crap island

Hah, that bit about the P-39 made me laugh. Playing some WWII combat sims, that thing with the rear-mounted engine had a center of mass moved so far back that it would go into an unrecoverable spin after just about anything you did, it seemed.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag.(show it anyway)

Love it.

Thanks for posting. I had wondered about that tune myself several years back.