Upon returning from Vietnam, he faces a bleak economic reality. The factories and refineries have shut down, leaving no jobs for returning soldiers.
When he turns to the Veterans Administration (V.A.) office for help, the bureaucrat simply turns him away, saying, “Son, don’t you understand?”
The song ends with the veteran mourning his brother who died fighting at Khe Sanh, realizing he has spent ten years burning down the road with nowhere to go. He is a ghost in his own country.