The song sold about 750,000 copies during the war. In 1948, the Army began looking for an official song. First the Army held a contest but none of the winners achieved any popularity.

The Army resumed its search for a song in the late 1940s, about the time Arberg was serving as an Army musician in Iran. In 1948, he became a reserve officer at Ft. Monmouth, N.J.

FORT MYER, Va. (Army News Service, June 18, 2009) - Harold W. Arberg, the man who wrote the lyrics to the Army song, attended a special Army birthday edition of the Twilight Tattoo Wednesday night ...

The Army resumed its search for a song in the late 1940s, about the time Arberg was serving as an Army musician in Iran. In 1948, he became a reserve officer at Ft. Monmouth, N.J.