Van of Valor

Easter in Chattanooga

(Verse 1:)

From the Gulf of Mexico, where the sugar sands lie white

To the Alabama pines beneath the April light

We carried names of heroes on our weathered steel side

In a van of stories, with the miles open wide

Through Fort Benning dust and Atlanta’s sprawling glow

To a Tennessee river where the ancient waters flow

(Chorus:)

Oh, we drove for the silent, for the brave, and the scarred

With a microphone, a mission, and this beat-up calling card

To mend a broken thread, to let a secret story start

We drove to find the beating, beating heart of America

(Verse 2:)

We heard the Easter promise in a Chattanooga pew

Then a soldier’s trembling memory from a war he never knew

Through the Smoky Mountain passages and the Fancy Gap’s high veil

To the truth that waits in North Carolina, pale and frail

Then north on 95, with the purpose in our bones

To the Capital’s bright fireworks and monumental stones

(Chorus:)

Oh, we drove for the silent, for the brave, and the scarred

With a microphone, a mission, and this beat-up calling card

To mend a broken thread, to let a secret story start

We drove to find the beating, beating heart of America

(Bridge:)

Two hundred eighty days, three hundred seventeen souls

In the static and the quiet, we found ourselves made whole

A father and a son, with a forty-year-old space

A P.O.W.’s long walk, finally finding place

Through every breakdown, every mountain, every rented car

We followed that compass, pointing straight to who you are

(Verse 3:)

The van is resting now, down in a Florida town

With a permanent address where the sun beats down

But the voices in the recorder, they will never fade away

They’re the light we carry forward into every coming day

From a Harvard lecture hall to a local V.F.W.

We’ll speak their truth forever, it’s our solemn vow

(Final Chorus:)

Yeah, we drove for the silent, for the brave, and the scarred

With a microphone, a mission, and this beat-up calling card

We mended broken threads, we let the secret stories start

We found the beating, beating heart

We carried the beating, beating heart

Of America.