I Was Only 19

The lyrics and explanation

I Was Only 19 (A Walk in the Light Green)

Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal,(1)
(1t was long march from cadets).
The Sixth Battalion was the next to tour and it was me who drew the card…(2)
We did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left.(3)

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…(4)
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 pin-ups on the lockers, (5)
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 M16? (6)
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 could mean your last one on two legs:
it was a war within yourself. (7)
But you wouldn't let your mates down 'til they had you dusted off, (8)
so you closed your eyes and thought about something else.(9)

Then someone yelled out "Contact"', and the bloke behind me swore.(10)
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.

1 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.

1 = Puckapunyal. A recruit training Base.
2 = me who drew the card, National Service (draft) was based on a lottery. If your number came up, you were in.
3 = Canungra and Shoalwater, were both places where we did Jungle training
4 = SLR Self Loading Rifle 7.62mm
5 = VB Aussie beer ...took some getting used to
6 = M16 Americain Armalite Rifle .225
7 = Our Tactical Area of Operations was full of mines
8 = dusted off Medivaced out by Chopper
9 = Figuratively speaking, you could never close your eyes on patrol
10 = "Contact" The Australian Army yells Contact, so there is no doubt what you have to do
11 = Grand Hotel was a hotel in the town of Vung Tau, where a lot of us drank

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