I was only 19 (a walk in the light green)

I WAS ONLY NINETEEN (A WALK IN THE LIGHT GREEN)
(John Schumann, Redgum)

Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing-out parade at Puckapunyal.
It was a long march from cadets.
The Sixth Battalion was the next to tour, and it was me who drew the card.
We did Canungra, Shoalwater before we left.

Townsville lined the footpaths as we marched down to the quay.
This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean.
An' there's me in me slouch hat with me 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, VB and pinups on the lockers.
An' an Agent Orange sunset through the scrub.

An' can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep?
An' night-time's just a jungle dark and a barking M16?
An' 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 could 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.

An' then someone yelled out, "Contact!" and the bloke behind me swore.
We hooked in there for hours, then a Godalmighty roar.
Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon,
God help me, he was going home in June.

An' I can still see Frankie, drinking tinnies in the Grand Hotel
On a thirty-six hour rec leave in Vung Tau
An' I can still hear Frankie, lying screaming in the jungle
'Til the morphine came and killed the bloody row.

An' the ANZAC legends didn't mention mud and blood and tears.
An' the 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.

An' can you tell me, doctor, why I still can't get to sleep?
An' why the Channel Seven chopper chills me to my feet?
An' what's this rash that comes and goes -- can you tell me what it means?
God help me, I was only nineteen.

NOTE
Puckapunyal: a recruit training center
Cunungra: a Jungle Warfare training center
Shoalwater: a place that the Army used for Military exercises
SLR: the personal weapon mostly used in Vietnam
Vung Tau & Nui Dat: Aussie bases in Vietnam
V B = Victorian Bitter: a very popular Aussie beer
ANZAC: the acronym for the Australian New Zealand Army Corps ("And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda - ANZAC Legend Begins")
Rec: Recreation leave

Soundtrack: I was only nineteen - Redgum