I WAS ONLY NINETEEN
Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal
(It was long march from cadets).
The Sixth Battalion was the next to tour and it was me who drew the card.
We did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left.
And Townsville lined the footpath as we marched down to the quay.
This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean.
And there’s me in my slouch hat with my SLR and greens.
God help me, I was only nineteen.
From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat,
I’d been in and out of choppers now for months.
But we made our tents a home, V.B. and pinups on the lockers,
And an Asian Orange sunset through the scrub.
And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can’t get to sleep?
And night time’s just a jungle dark and a barking M-16?
And what’s this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only nineteen.
A four week operation, when each step can mean your last one
On two legs: it was a war within yourself.
But you wouldn’t let your mates down ’til they had you dusted off,
So you closed your eyes and thought about something else.
Then someone yelled out "CONTACT", and the bloke behind me swore.
We hooked in there for hours, then a God almighty roar.
Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon.
God help me, he was going home in June.
And I can still see Frankie, drinking tinnies in the Grand Hotel
On a thirty-six hour rec leave in Vung Tau.
And I can still hear Frankie, lying screaming in the jungle.
’Till the morphine came and killed the bloody row.
And the ANZAC legends didn’t mention mud and blood and tears.
And stories that my father told me never seemed quite real
I caught some pieces In my back that I didn’t even feel.
God help me, I was only nineteen.
And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can’t get to sleep?
And why the Channel Seven chopper chills me to my feet?
And what’s this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only nineteen.
©John Schuman
GLOSSARY
Puckapunyal, Conungra, Shoalwater - Australian Army training bases
Townsville - City in Queensland and major Army Barracks
SLR - 7.62mm Self Loading Rifle - standard Army weapon of the era
greens - Jungle green uniform
V.B. - Victoria Bitter - an Australian brand of beer
tinnies - Cans of beer
rec leave - recreation leave
ANZAC - Australian and New Zealand Army Corps
Channel Seven - An Australian Television Network
No Man's Land - by Eric Bogle
Well, how'd you do, Private Willie McBride,
D'you mind if I sit 'ere down by your graveside?
And I'll rest for awhile in the warm summer sun,
I've been walkin' all day, Lord, and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916,
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died "clean,"
Or, Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?
CHORUS:
Did they beat the drums slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sing "Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play the "Floors O' The Forest"?
And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
And, though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you always nineteen?
Or are you a stranger, without even a name,
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?
CHORUS:
Did they beat the drums slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sing "Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play the "Floors O' The Forest"?
Well, the sun's shining now on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished long under the plow;
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard that's still No Man's Land;
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man.
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.
CHORUS:
Did they beat the drums slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sing "Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play the "Floors O' The Forest"?
And I can't help but wonder now, Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you "the cause?"
You really believe that this war would end wars?
The suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame,
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it's all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.
CHORUS:
Did they beat the drums slowly, did they sound the fife lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sing "Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play the "Floors O' The Forest"?
Did the bugles sing "Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play the "Floors O' The Forest"?
