Aussie bush folk band Redgum – their enduring veteran protest anthem:
“I Was Only Nineteen (A Walk in the Light Green)“
[Released in March 1983]
[Verse 1]
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 and Shoalwater before we left
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 2]
From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat
I’d been in and out of choppers now for months
And we made our tents a home: VB, and pinups on the lockers
And an Agent Orange sunset through the scrub
[Chorus]
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.
[Verse 3]
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 somethin’ else
[Verse 4]
And 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
[Verse 5]
And I can still see Frankie drinkin’ 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
‘Til the morphine came and killed the bloody row
[Verse 6]
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.
SOURCE: Australian War Memorial, ^https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C283434
Redgum was Australia’s iconic folk and political music band formed in Adelaide in 1975 by lead singer-songwriter-guitarist John Schumann, Michael Atkinson on guitars/vocals and Verity Truman on flute/vocals; they were soon joined by Chris Timms on violin. All four had been students at (South Oz) Flinders University and together developed an intensely passionate and outspoken outlook.
They are best known for their protest song exploring the impact of war in 1983’s “I Was Only Nineteen (A Walk in the Light Green)“, which peaked at #1 on Australia’s National singles charts.
The song is a first-person account of a typical Australian soldier’s experience in the Vietnam War, from training at a military academy in Australia to first hand exposure to military operations and combat, and ultimately his return home disillusioned and suffering from both PTSD and, it is implied, the harmful effects of Agent Orange. John wrote the song based on experiences he heard from veterans, particularly Mick Storen (his brother in-law) and Frankie Hunt. The mine experiences in the story pertain to an incident during Operation Mundingburra on 21 July 1969 of which Storen experienced. Schumann has said that “the power derives from the detail, provided by my mate and brother-in-law, Mick Storen, who was brave and trusting enough to share his story with me.”
For the live version, Schumann explained the title, “A Walk in the Light Green”, as referring to operational patrols in areas marked light green on topographical maps, where dark green indicated thick jungle, plenty of cover and few land mines and light green indicated thinly wooded areas, little cover and a high likelihood of land mines.
[SOURCE: Wikipedia]
Relevance?
Relevance of this song to Julian Knight? None! So why include it on this website? Good question, yet think about it. Julian Knight never got his chance for active service, yet not without trying his darndest.
Julian Knight, before Duntroon, in his words:
“I was born on 4 March 1968 in Melbourne, Australia. My father was an officer in the Royal Australian Army Education Corps (RAAEC) during 1968-1988. My earliest memories are of my father in uniform and the Centurion tanks at Puckapunyal, where we lived during 1970-1972. I attended kindergarten at Puckapunyal and later at RAAF Point Cook. I then attended primary school at Stanley Fort, Hong Kong, during 1973-1975.
I had wanted to enlist the Army for as long as I can remember. From around the age of 12 my ambition was to emulate my father and become an officer in the Australian Army. During my school years my goal was to attend the Officer Cadet School (OCS), at Portsea.
He signed up at age 17 on 1st October 1985 at the first opportunity to join the Australian Army Reserves. Being a Victorian he trained at Puckapunyal in central Victoria about 100km north of Melbourne, as have many Army recruits over the years….”
[SOURCE: Julian Knight’s 95-page ‘PERSONAL ACCOUNT‘ (plus 13 attachments) to the Defence Abuse Response Taskforce submitted 26th November 2013, page 2]
[READ MORE OF JULIAN KNIGHT’S COMMITTED MILITARY SERVICE FOCUS BEFORE DUNTROON]
When one signs up on the dotted line to serve his/her country, Australia, it is a solemn commitment, a calling, a hope of a profession to serve in the Australia Defence Force to protect Australia and serve in our military, whatever the corps or focus or skill-set. Increasingly young women also take up this innate calling.
It is an undertaking that few citizens choose. Mostly those who do are typically very young adults.
Julian Knight at age 18 immediately voluntarily to serve initially in the Australian Army Reserve as soon as he was age eligible. Consistently, this keen military interest of his followed his school boy time in the Army Cadet Corps and before that the Scouts.
For Julian, the Australian Army as a full-time lifetime profession was his calling. It was voluntarily like so many young men of our country’s past.
However, Julian Knight never got to see ‘action’ in a assigned war zone overseas. He was thwarted by ADF bureaucratic culture. The enemy was within – senior cadets at RMC Duntroon – they may as well have been Chinese enemy infiltrators.
RMC Duntroon stuffed up his potential. It’s institutionalised bastardisation since 1912 of its junior Army officer staff cadets was the sole cause. Since 1912 RMC Duntroon has blindly delegated bullying senior cadets charged to “weed out” any junior staff cadet they choose to dislike. Young immature Julian copped the wrath. It was unwarranted, hateful, sadistic, cruel, unproductive, evil, physically harmful and extremely psychologically damaging. Yet, this sick abusive indoctrination culture persists within ADF training establishments and especially notoriously still at RMC-D Duntroon and at ADFA over the adjoining hill.
Duntroon is the enemy within, let alone the real enemy of the Vietnam War the Viet Cong, as in the above song.
At Duntroon, junior (freshman) Army officer staff cadets are conditioned to fear and hate their own senior cadets, just like the real enemy. It is negative leadership of the worst kind, especially in the military sphere.
The institutionalised persistent torment (physically and psychologically) that Julian copped from senior cadets as his own peers in his own assigned training Company, Platoon and Section at RMC Duntroon in Canberra, end up tipping him over the edge of rationalisation. Such unjustified bullying, intimidation and assaults by his own senior team sent a disturbing cultural message.
“You are not wanted in our tribe” So Lord of the Flies!
Julian, was pushed into a corner. But he was strong willed enough not to resign from officer training at Duntroon, but to stick it out. He was not one to withdraw or to become depressed nor to commit suicide as so many soldier end up doing.
Instead, Julian is a born fighter. He stabbed his lead tormentor Philip (“Mungo”) Reed. Once the Army abandoned him, n a drunken psychotic fit of rage, he took his anger instead out on society that had also abandoned him. He committed Hoddle Street.
What a waste of innate military talent. Duntroon Bastardisation induced psychosis caused one of its own to slaughter innocent lives.
