01 / Hear
Hear the Song
02 / Know
Know the Story
Macca kept finding me whenever I managed to get lost.
I wrote Macca & Me for my best mate in Australia—the soldier who found me lost at Kapooka, kept pulling me out of trouble and was still beside me years later in Kabul.
The American meets the Australian
I wrote this quick, funny song for my best mate in Australia. Macca and I met at Kapooka—Australia’s boot camp—where he was the Australian in the Australian Army and I was the American learning how everything worked.
Lost at one in the morning
At about one in the morning, I once got completely lost trying to find the gun pit. Macca did not point and go back to sleep; he got up, walked me there and returned to bed. We later graduated from the School of Signals as Signalmen—the Geeks—and naturally considered ourselves the top of the pile. Macca may also be the only soldier I have known who could sleep standing up.
Uniform of the day
He still loves the day I was dared to approach the command line in uniform. We were going to the pool, so I decided budgie smugglers counted as the uniform of the day. I won the dare. Whether I won anyone’s respect is another question.
The fence incident
Darwin added the fence incident. Fireworks are legal on Fireworks Day; alcohol and fireworks remain a dangerous combination that I do not condone. Part of Macca’s neighbor’s fence caught fire, so I returned with Dave—who was not responsible but offered to help—and repaired it. Thanks, Dave.
The joke carries the truth
Years later Macca and I met again while deployed in Kabul and simply fell back into step. The song plays these memories for laughs, but underneath them is trust. He got out of bed when I was lost, helped when I found trouble and kept showing up. Before I trusted his advice about motorcycles, I trusted the man.
03 / Feel
Feel the Soul
What I want you to feel.
I want you to laugh at the misadventures, but also recognize the mate beneath them. Trust is rarely built in one grand gesture. Sometimes it is built at one in the morning when somebody gets out of bed, walks you where you need to go and never makes you feel like a burden for being lost.
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