(to the tune of “I was only nineteen”)

 
Muzza and Dave and Python put in the yards with us at training
It was a long march from the pub
ANZAC Kokoda were the next to tour, and that meant we’d done our work.
We did Bowen Hills and Mt Coot-tha before we left.

Dog body bags lined our backpacks as we marched to Air PNG
These clippings from the web site show us looking smarter than we seem.
And there’s Belle with her shovel and chain down to her knees.
God help us, we are the 3rd / 46th team.

From Moresby, riding small planes, to the dust at Kokoda ‘strip
We’d been in and out of trek boots now for months.
But we made our tents a home, dreaming of SP and Big Rooster
But instead got a sloppy rice concoction in the scrub.

And can you tell me, doctor, why Justin still scratches his feet?
And night-time’s just a jungle dark and a barking mangy dog?
And what’s this smell that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help us, we are the 3rd / 46th team.

Nine days, of trekking, when every step could mean your last one on two legs
The porridge caused a war within your pants.
But you wouldn’t let your mates down ‘til they beat the Dalby Dogs
So you closed your eyes and made your impact felt.

Then someone yelled out “Bart!” and the bloke behind me swore
We walked on for hours, then a God-almighty roar
Johnnie Ribot kicked the mud the day that Maddie lost her spoon,
God help us, we were goin’ home real soon.

I can still see Glennie, drinking rumbo’s in the Crown Plaza
On his thirty-six hour bender, ‘til Kyle yelled, “We’re leavin’ now!”
And I can still hear Kerry, lying slurring in the foyer
‘Til the minibus came and we dragged his body out.

And we ANZAC Legends never mention the mud and blood and tears
And the stories about the Roosters and the Dogs never seemed quite real.
I saw some piccies when we got back - the emotion, I can feel
God help us, we are the 3rd / 46th team.

And can you tell me, doc Phil, why I smile when I go to sleep?
And why the thought of trekking gives me tingles in my feet?
And what’s this pride that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help us, we are the 3rd / 46th team.