Joe Tex - I Believe I'm Gonna Make It

Vietnam War: Soul, Gospel, & Funk Records: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/JBrummer/vietnam_war__soul__gospel__and_funk_records/
Joe Tex, born Joseph Arrington Jr. (1933-1982), southern soul singer from Texas, recorded the track "I Believe I'm Gonna Make It" (Dial # 4033). A soldier received a letter from the home front, which gave him inspiration to fight and win: "I got your letter baby...I raised up and got two more enemies". In the spoken-word extract, the narrator expressed disappointment that he did not marry his girl "before I left for Vietnam", but then at the same time he did not want to leave her a widow. Note: furlough - a temporary leave of absence from military duty. The song referenced Jackie Robinson, the African-American baseball player. Written by Tex, and produced by Buddy Killen, founder of Dial. Billboard mentioned the song on 9 July 1966: "Lonely soldier theme and soulful Tex reading combine for a chart-topping disk", predicting it to reach the Top 60. Well, it made it to # 67, and stayed in the charts for 5 weeks, as listed in Billboard on 20 August. It reached # 9 in the R&B chart.

"When I got your letter baby, I was in a foxhole on my knees
And your letter brought me so much drip, I raised up and got
Me two more enemies, I believe that I'm gonna make it, tell
Everybody back home, I'll be home before you can say
Jackie Robinson, oh yes I will, oh yes I will, sometimes I wonder
Do you really love me, then I think of something sweet you once
Said to me and thought makes me feel so good inside
That I raised up and got me two more enemies
Baby, I wished a thousand times that we had got married
Before I left home for Vietnam, but then when I see so many
Of my buddies getting shot down all around me makes me
Kinda of glad that we waited cause I don't want to leave
You at home being a widow, they've promised me a furlough
On the 15th of next month, and I want you to say a prayer
Tonight that my furlough will come through so I can come home"