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

Mum and Dad and Danny

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

And Townsville lined the footpaths

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've been in and out of choppers now for months

We made our tents a home

VB 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 M16

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

But you wouldn't let your mates down

Till they had you dusted off

So you closed your eyes, and

Thought about something else

And then someone yelled out, "Contact!"

And the bloke behind me swore

We booked in there for hours

Then a God-almighty roar

And 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 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

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