Shooting From the Shadows

Shooting From the Shadows (c)
Music Chas Williams Lyrics Chas and Wings Williams

This story is true. Michael Ronald “Wings” Williams was one of the initial 26 NZ SAS sent TO Vietnam in the late 1960s.The more oblique lines will become clear when his book is published- hopefully soon.

We left in the dead of night
With barely a soul to testify
Twenty Six- on a secret flight
With no allowed to even wave goodbye.

Nui Dat..? Means “hill of clay”..
Don’t know for sure if it’s even there today..
But the “Long Green”and the “Horseshoe”…?
I know damned well (they) won’t be referred to

It was long ago … and far away..
Seems though like yesterday.

Memories of patrol remain fixed to my soul
As do the faces of the “left behind”
But it never did pay to mix… with the “Faceless 26”
We only moved with one objective in mind.

Ah but “wait a while” and a voice from out of no where
Kept me from being misled
Leaving me years of endless wonder…
Oh i know these things.. aren’t just inside my head.

It was long ago… and far away
Seems though like yesterday

I Came back.. in the dead of night
Wound so tight i ended sleeping’ on the floor
Trying my best to forget
Many things not forgotten yet…
All that shit that goes in hand with war.

Violin/Piano solos

Well you can change the place
And you can change to day
and in time we’ll just fade away
But time won’t change that Viet conclusion…
(YEAH,,,)We must have seemed an illusion.

It was long ago…and far away..
But WE… were the ghosts of grey.

 

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5 thoughts on “Shooting From the Shadows”

  1. Great song mate – such a terribly tragic moment in world history, that led to so much completely unnecessary death and destruction. I’ve been watching Ken Burns series – ‘The Vietnam War’ and it’s had me in tears a number of times. I highly recommend it, if only to understand just how futile the whole thing was.

  2. Hey there would yⲟu mind sharing which blog platfоrm you’re using?

    I’m looking to start my own blog soon bսt I’m having a hard
    time selecting between BlogEngine/Wordpresѕ/B2evolution and Drupal.
    The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blоgs and
    I’m looking for something cоmpletely unique.
    P.S Sorry for being off-topic but I had to
    ask!

    1. G’day Arrow!
      Just this time I’ll reply on Chas’s behalf cos’ of the technical wotsit…
      The wordpress theme is the paid version of this Video based theme here:
      https://seosthemes.com/free-wordpress-video-theme/
      “StealthKiwi,” (another commenter here) kindly modified it and put it together for Chas. Stealth was one of the many chaps trained up by Wings… Chas’s brother.