Lyric discussion by wesg01 

Cover art for Last to Die lyrics by Bruce Springsteen

'last to die' is a john kerry reference. Kerry used that to describe the Vietnam and the Iraq War. It describes the tragedy of being the very last person to die for stupid, unecessary wars

The end of the first verse: A voice drifted up from the radio We saw the voice from long ago i think is reaffirming that. I think he hears Kerry over the radio (during the election maybe?), and remembers his speech about Vietnam