About a hundred years ago when I was young, the Viet Nam War was current and conscription was in force for those who turned 20. Each 6 months the Australian Government held a ballot where marbles bearing birthdates were drawn out of a barrel, like Oz Lotto. Only the prize for having your number come up in this draw was not a truckload of cash, it was the Army and a trip to Viet Nam. I could have obtained a deferment until my university studies were finished but my birthdate did not come out of the barrel. My brothers, twins, turned 20 a year and a half after me. Their birthdate also did not come out, a relief to our parents, especially our mother.
From the time of the arrival of the first advisers in 1962, almost 60,000 Australians, including ground troops and air force and navy personnel, served in Vietnam; 521 died as a result of the war and over 3,000 were wounded.
The US sustained 58,913 dead, over 300,000 were wounded.
In 1983 Redgum, an Australian folk and political music group, released I Was Only 19 as a single and subsequently as part of a live album, Caught in the Act.
The fact that the singer says that he was only 19 when he experienced the horrors of Vietnam shows that he was an enlisted soldier, rather than a conscript (usually referred to as National Servicemen, or Nashos) who had to be 20 when conscripted.
The song poignantly describes the singer’s training, military operations and combat, and ultimately his return to Australia disillusioned, psychologically scarred and possibly suffering the ill effects of the defoliant Agent Orange.
Videos:
The Herd have done a hip hop version which you may like or which you may think is sacrilege. Have a listen to it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns82tHhJOr0 and take a look at the video that accompanies it.
Lyrics:
Mum and Dad and Denny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal,
(1t was long march from cadets).
he 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.
ut we made our tents a home, VB and pin-ups 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 '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.
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.
Trivia:
The song was written by Redgum’s John Schumann, based on what he had been told of the Vietnam experience by veterans, particularly his brother in law Mick Storen and Frankie Hunt.
Royalties for the song go to the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia.
The song is in APRA’s Top 30 Australian Songs of All Time.
The original title was a A Walk in the Light Green. On the album Caught in the Act, it is explained that this refers to operational patrols in areas marked light green on topographical maps. Dark green indicated thick jungle, plenty of cover and few land mines. Light green indicated thinly wooded areas, little cover and a high likelihood of land mines.
The Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial, constructed in Anzac Parade in Canberra in 1992, includes a “Wall of Words” which has 33 quotations in stainless steel. One of the quotations is:
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.
John Schumann’s story of how he came to write I Was Only 19 is at:
http://www.schumann.com.au/john/articles/i_was_only_19.pdf
It is well worth the read.
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