Green To Brown

Voice Mission : Bushranger's Revetment - Poetry and Stories by Vietnam Veteran, Anthony W. (Bushranger) Pahl and friends

Our chopper sat on Kanga Pad beneath the hill at Nui Dat
while we lazed about the alert crew hut. Minds bored, we tried to nap.
The field phone buzzed its tinny ring. We sat up with a start.
Dust-off? Hot extraction? Re-supply? Regardless, we’d play our part.
But our foreheads cringed, as did our minds, as the mission became known.
We were tasked to fly to assist the Yanks to destroy the jungle crown.
The ‘techos’ worked to secure the banks of speakers to the craft.
The ‘psy-ops’ people jumped aboard as we set off on our task.

We headed east to the selected sight flying above the jungle crown.
While the speakers blared in a foreign tongue, I could only frown.
“Leave the area, we’re spraying soon! Give up and save your lives.
We’re spraying the jungle in half an hour! Give up or you will die!”
Trailing vilest mist, the Yanks flew in. We followed in the spray.
“The jungle will die - and so will you. We warned - now you must pay!”

Two weeks passed by ’til we flew again over the jungle sprayed that day.
No green was seen - the jungle dead. How much nature did we maim?
I reminisce about those times with dread and wonder what went wrong.
Why did we want to fight a war with effects that last so long?
I ponder now, if I had the chance to relive those times again…

What worth are toxic jungles and human lives and pain?

If we flew over our great south land to view it from above
to survey the forest land laid bare would we still be able to love?
Are we doing now as then but in a different way?
Because the effect’s the same;
our greed’s laid bare
and our children - they must pay!

I was asked to write a poem about trees by the Rebecca, a daughter of one of the organisers of the “Save Albert Park” campaign. This group was trying to stop the construction of the Formula 1 Grand Prix Street racing circuit in Melbourne, believing that the park would suffer, particularly the old palm trees and the lake.

Although not an advocate of their campaign (the park and lake were man-made, albeit may years ago), I did however have some sympathy for the trees. Having witnessed and participated in the jungle defoliation process carried out in Vietnam, I decided that the commonality of the result was worthy of comparison.

I understand that the poem was read at a protest rally in Hyde Park in London during the campaign.

Page created: Saturday, 12 May 2001