“God help me, I was only 19.”
Those words have been etched into our national psyche by songwriter John Schumann and immortalised by his former band, Redgum.
As many people across the Far South Coast and the country, paused to commemorate Vietnam Veterans Day last Sunday, in the latest edition of the iHeart Far South Coast podcast, we dive into the story behind the song ‘I Was Only 19’ that became an anthem for veterans, young and old, across Australia.
We get insights from the man who wrote the song, John Schumann, Bega Valley veteran, Frank “Frankie” Hunt who “kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon” and former Editor of the Bega District News, Steven Strevens, who wrote a book about it all, called The Jungle Dark.
“I had friends who went [to Vietnam] and I watched them come back and as the years went by I was very aware the Vietnam Veterans didn’t get a fair deal when they got home,” Schumann (pictured above) said.
“There was no respect for the work they had done, that the Government sent them to do because it was an unpopular and divisive war,” he continued.
“I always wanted to write a song about it, and I wasn’t able to do that until Mick Storen, my brother-in-law, told me his story.”
Images: John Schumann, Australian War Memorial, NSW RSL
