BEING conscripted and heading to Vietnam turned Normie Rowe's life upside down. Fifty and 50 years on, the veteran entertainer has re-recorded a hit song about that dark period in Australia's history.
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Normie presents his take on Compulsory Hero, the 1989 hit ballad about conscription by songwriter and former 1927 and Moving Pictures member Garry Frost.
As the nation commemorates Anzac Day in a very different way, Normie's rendition can be heard and seen on a new music video on YouTube.
Life changing
Normie was at the height of his career, having released a run of 11 Top 10 records and was touring around the world when he returned to Australia from the UK to tour in 1967.
He didn't realise his life - just like the lives of 50,000 other Australians - was about to be turned upside down.
"When I came back for the tour, I had to sign (conscription) papers. I didn't know I wouldn't be allowed out of the country," he said.
"I signed the papers in July of 67 and I was called up when I was on tour in WA."
The war
Normie began his service with the army in 1968 and was sent to Vietnam in January 1969. He returned to Australia later that year.
During his service, he spent 18 months as a crew member of an armoured personnel carrier, before being promoted to crew commander for the last six months of his tour of duty.
He had a number of firefight experiences, but the most pervasive threat for crew members was land mines.
"They usually set them wherever they thought we would drive," he said.
"When you hear about wounds, or even worse - deaths of mates - you don't really have time to talk them through. A lot of things stay there until they come out many years later."
The aftermath
Normie's trauma manifested in 2001 when he spent three months in a Gold Coast psychiatric ward as he dealt with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
"There's a lot of misinformation about PTSD," he said. "There's no one version of PTSD; cases are as individual as the people who experience them."
He said a lot of people didn't understand that personnel did not necessarily need to have witnessed a traumatic event, or served on the front lines, to experience PTSD.
"If you have experienced a life threatening situation for more than three months, you will carry PTSD for the rest of your life," he said.
Compulsory Hero
Normie said it was "a great thrill" to revisit a piece of music he described as epic.
"It tells not just my story, but also the story of the 50,000 other Australians whose lives were interrupted.
"It's a big part of my life anyway. Every show I do, I perform one, two or three songs that have to do with my military experiences.
"I want people to remember, so conscription and the lack of care that was shown after service don't happen again.
"If we ignore what has happened in the past, we're bound to make the same mistakes again."
For more about Normie Rowe, click here.
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