50 Best Country Songs About the Military
Country Music Honoring Military Life and Service
There’s a specific weight to the first few notes of a country track that leans into military life. Not the glossy parade versions, but the ones that hold a slow kind of grit. You might hear them in the quiet of a small-town bar, or on a radio that’s been on the same station since dawn. They’re built from voices that know the ache of waiting, the hollow ring of a phone that never comes, the creak of a front porch where news has been shared too many times. It’s not all solemn either. Sometimes there’s pride thick enough to choke on, or a wild spark from knowing what someone’s fighting for.
These songs don’t try to smooth the rough edges. They stay in the moments where uniforms hang in closets, where boots sit by the door like they’re holding their breath. They can feel like letters written too late or road trips taken on a whim before deployment. You can hear echoes from pop, rock, country, and R&B songs, but country strips it down to the raw bones and leaves the pauses in. There’s space for laughter too, the kind that pops up in a garage over a busted guitar string or in the middle of a backyard firepit talk that runs late into the night.
Not every track salutes in the same way. Some get loud and defiant, built to rattle a truck cab or a dance floor. Others slow to a crawl, letting every note drag its feet through the story. A few play like memories you didn’t mean to unlock until someone hit the play button. All of them sit in that space where sacrifice meets stubborn hope. Here are the best country songs honoring the military.
Top 10 Military Country Songs
1. 'If You're Reading This'—Tim McGraw
2. 'American Soldier'—Toby Keith
3. 'Arlington'—Trace Adkins
4. 'I Drive Your Truck'—Lee Brice
5. 'Travelin' Soldier'—The Chicks
6. 'Some Gave All'—Billy Ray Cyrus
7. 'Just a Dream'—Carrie Underwood
8. 'Letters From Home'—John Michael Montgomery
9. '8th of November'—Big & Rich
10. 'Riding with Private Malone'—David Ball
Country Music Military Tributes #11—20
11. 'The Ones That Didn't Make It Back Home'—Justin Moore
12. 'Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue'—Toby Keith
13. 'Still a Soldier'—Trace Adkins
14. 'Soldier's Last Letter'—Merle Haggard
15. 'If Not Me'—Craig Morgan
16. 'For You'—Keith Urban
17. 'Sleeping with the Telephone'—Reba McEntire
18. 'Red, White and Blue'—Lynyrd Skynyrd
19. 'Soldiers and Jesus'—James Otto
20. 'Angel Flight'—Radney Foster
Country Songs About Veterans #21—30
21. 'God Bless the U.S.A.'—Lee Greenwood
22. 'Chicken Fried'—Zac Brown Band
23. 'Didn't I'—Montgomery Gentry
24. 'P.T. 109'—Jimmy Dean
25. 'Hello Vietnam'—Johnny Wright
26. 'I'm Already There'—Lonestar
27. 'There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere'—Elton Britt
28. 'The Battle of New Orleans'—Johnny Horton
29. 'Till the Last Shot's Fired'—Trace Adkins
30. 'Soldier's Sweetheart'—Jimmie Rodgers
Songs for Military Families #31—40
31. 'The Soldier's Gift'—Josh Turner
32. 'Keep the Flag Flying'—Johnny Wright
33. 'Dear Uncle Sam'—Loretta Lynn
34. 'The Ballad Of Ira Hayes'—Johnny Cash
35. 'Waitin' On a Woman'—Brad Paisley
36. 'Whiskey Lullaby'—Brad Paisley featuring Alison Krauss
37. 'Smoke on the Water'—Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
38. 'Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima'—Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
39. 'Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly'—Aaron Tippin
40. 'Soldier Boy'—The Shirelles
Country Songs About Military Sacrifices #41—50
41. 'More Than a Name on a Wall'—The Statler Brothers
42. 'The Preacher and the Stranger'—Lefty Frizzell
43. 'Back in the U.S.A.'—Chuck Berry
44. 'The Fighting Side of Me'—Merle Haggard
45. 'Only in America'—Brooks & Dunn
46. 'God Bless America Again'—Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty
47. 'Soldier's Grave'—The Carter Family
48. 'The Last Letter'—Jimmie Rodgers
49. 'A Dear John Letter'—Jean Shepard and Ferlin Husky
50. 'Go Rest High on That Mountain'—Vince Gill
© 2025 Carson McQueen
