page_title: F.T.A.
section_title: The FTA Song
hierarchical_section_title: F.T.A. / The Film / The FTA Song
caption_attribution_description: English: Logo of Movement for a Democratic Military (1969-75) - FTA is slang for F___ The Army.
context_page_description: F.T.A. is a 1972 American documentary film starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland and directed by Francine Parker, which follows a 1971 anti-Vietnam War road show for GI's, the FTA Show, as it stops in Hawaii, The Philippines, Okinawa, and Japan. It includes highlights from the show, behind the scenes footage, local performers from the countries visited, and interviews and conversations with GIs "as they discuss what they saw in battle, their anger with the military bureaucracy, and their opposition to America's presence in Indochina." Called by Fonda "a spit and a prayer production" it was far from a big budget Hollywood movie, or even a well-funded documentary. While the movie "is raw," it "underscores how infectious the movement of the 60s and 70s was", and chronicles both the Tour itself as well as the soldiers who came to see it and "the local talent of organizers, labor unions and artist/activists" in the countries visited.
context_section_description: Several of the tour's skits are interspersed with footage of the cast singing the show's theme song, The Lifer's Song (or The FTA Song). The song is an irreverent ditty written around the common troop expression FTA, which really meant "Fuck The Army" and which, in turn, was a play on the Army recruitment slogan "Fun, Travel and Adventure". During the Vietnam War, FTA was often scrawled on the side of walls and scratched onto bathroom stalls. The song tells the story of a pro-military "lifer" who is trying to figure out what FTA means. He hears it in "Leesville", "Waynesville", "Fayetteville", and "a Texas paradise called Killeen" - all towns with major military bases. Just "three little words" he complains, "but I can't find out what they mean." Is it "Future Teachers of American", "Free The Antarcticans", "Free The Army?" Help me, the singers appeal to the audience. On the tour, when the troupe came to the last line they always hesitated, encouraging the audience to supply the real meaning of FTA, which the GIs invariably did with a thundering "FUCK the Army". "Extra letters and words were added as needed, depending upon the composition of the audience. FTA would become 'FTAF' or 'FTN,' or 'FTM' — or all four at once, spelled out in a triumphant, expletive-filled list." In the film we see "the singers exaggeratedly trying to contain themselves" as they reach the first word in the last line. "[I]t seems the singers want the audience to understand that they really want to say 'Fuck the Army,' but they perform the pretense that they can’t quite or won’t, for whatever reason, bring themselves to do it the first time through. The second time, as they are making the long, drawn-out beginning of the word, Len Chandler turns and says quietly (but the mic picks it up) 'say it!' — and they do..., they shout 'Fuck the Army.'"
caption: FTA was a common troupe expression as shown in this button from the GI group Movement for a Democratic Military
exif: {}