Do you remember the date, twenty-one Feb,
sixty-seven,
when five of our mates were blown clear
up to heaven;
when the driver and commander of our rumbling
track
were killed by the blast from a mined booby
trap?
Do you remember the screams of mates who
lay dying
while all else was silence, like the shock
before crying;
and the medic was one of the dead on the
ground;
and no one dared move ‘coz more mines were
around?
Do you remember our weapons that were lost
in the blast
and all we could do was sit still on the
grass?
Our training demanded that our eyes keep
on searching
but we could do nothing in that hellish
damn clearing.
Do you remember the “Possum” and the bloke
who got out?
He walked up the track but was stopped
by a shout,
”Another bloody step and I’ll shoot you
me-self!”
And he said, “Shoot if you must but I got
wounded to help.”
Do you remember that bloke and the calmness
he showed
as he tended each digger as their blood
quietly flowed?
No equipment ‘cept that which he found
layin’ ‘round:
do you remember watching him without a
damn sound?
Do you remember his voice, as he demanded
your help
to get him a bandage or to apply first
aid yourself?
Do you remember forgetting the fact there
were mines
as he triggered your instincts to save
your mates’ lives?
Yes you remember… you remember it well
because how can you forget those times
shared in hell?
And you can remember because you’re alive.
Perhaps you’d be dead had that bloke not
arrived.
©Anthony W. Pahl
31st January 2001
This is the true story of 4 Platoon, 5RAR
(Royal Australian Regiment) who got caught in a minefield in a
clearing Vietnam on 21 February 1967.
Five members of the platoon were killed outright; another died 3
days later. The diver and the commander
of the APC were both killed instantly and all but 3 of the
platoon were wounded.
The platoon is having a reunion on February
20th 2002. One member, who has become a personal friend
over several years, asked if I would write
a poem to present to the Doctor who was the bloke who got of
the “Possum” helicopter (Bell Bubble) and
who walked through the minefield in order to save the lives of
many of the platoon members. He will
be present at the reunion so it is a great honour to have been
asked to write about a very brave man.
“Bushranger”