Within the U.S. Air Force fighter pilot community, the term "throw a nickel on the grass ..."
embodies an expression of mutual respect and good luck from one warrior to another. It stems from the refrain of an old Korean War barroom ballad… "Throw a nickel on the grass, save a fighter pilot's ass" and was later immortalized by an unknown author's closing words in his
Tribute to the Fighter Pilot …
So here's a nickel on the grass to you, my friend, and your spirit, enthusiasm, sacrifice and courage - but most of all to your friendship. Your's is a dying breed and when you are gone, the world will be a lesser place."
Throw a Nickel On the Grass…Save a Fighters Pilot’s Ass
Oh, Halleliua, Halleliua
Throw a nickel on the grass–Save a fighter pilot’s ass.
Oh, Halleliua, Oh, Halleliua
Throw a nickel on the grass and you’ll be saved.
I was cruising down the Yalu, doing six and twenty per
When a call came from the Major, Oh won ‘t you save me sir?
Got three flak holes in my wing tips, and my tanks ain’t got no gas.
Mayday, mayday, mayday, I got six MIGS on my ass.
I shot my traffic pattern, and to me it looked all right,
The airspeed read one-thirty, I really racked it tight!
Then the airframe gave a shudder, the engine gave a wheeze,
Mayday, mayday, mayday, spin instructions please.
It was split S on my Bomb run, and I got too God Damn low
But I pressed that bloody button, and I let those babies go
Sucked the stick back fast as blazes, when I hit a high speed stall
I won’t see my mother when the work all done next fall.
They sent me down to Pyongyang, the brief said “no ack ack”
by the time that I arrived there, my wings was mostly flak.
Then my engine coughed and sputtered, it was too cut up to fly
Mayday, mayday, mayday, I’m too young to die.
I bailed out from the Sabre, and the landing came out fine
With my E and E equipment, I made for our front line.
When I opened up ration, to see what was in it,
The God damn quartermaster why he filled the tin with grit.