Men Who Mean Just What They Say
24th October 2025
Fearless. Brave. Competitively selected. America’s best. But at the highpoint in the gradually ascending melody, in the very first verse: “Men who mean just what they say.”
SSgt Sadler wrote these words over 50 years ago now, and a lot has changed since then. At first blush, the modern ear might almost be inclined to pass over this line, to ignore its prominent placing in the song. It seems almost a little innocuous, a little gentlemanly, a little highbrow, for the nation’s most potent, the killers at the frontlines, the deadliest greatest manliest men alive.
What do we get now? “Toxic masculinity!”.