I Was Only 19 songwriter John Schumann pens Graduation Day song to encourage police with PTSD to seek help
His song ‘I Was Only 19’ sparked a national conversation about Vietnam veterans. Now John Schumann hopes his new song ‘Graduation Day’ can do the same for police with PTSD.
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John Schumann hopes his new song ‘Graduation Day’ shines a powerful spotlight on the crippling scourge of PTSD affecting Australia’s police officers in the same way ‘I Was Only 19’ changed the country’s attitudes to Vietnam veterans.
The legendary songwriter was approached by the Police Federation of Australia to pen the visceral anthem about the dangers police face every day on the job to launch their new mental health campaign.
Over the past year he spoke to 25 officers battling PTSD about their experiences to construct the song which is released today.
Schumann, who sought treatment for PTSD himself after assisting at a fatal car accident scene on the way home from performing at a Redgum concert more than three decades ago, said writing the song from the officers’ perspective proved to be a harrowing experience.
‘Graduation Day’ details the kind of incidents which can cause psychological damage to police, from car accidents and shootings to the heartbreaking task of telling family members a loved one has been killed.
“I’ve got to tell you talking to these officers was heartbreaking; what are we doing to these people?” Schumann said.
“We send them out there to hold the thin blue line, ordinary men and women who have a service ethic, and we need to say to them you are not on your own brothers and sisters.”
Schumann hopes the song encourages police who may be suffering PTSD to seek treatment quickly as he did for his own mental health.
“The lesson here is if you step in early, it doesn’t have to ruin your life; it could have ruined my life because I am soft as butter,” he said.
“A lot of the officers I spoke to didn’t, and when they eventually fell over and got to a psychologist with their partner and could see the patterns, they all say if they had done so years before, they wouldn’t have got into a mess, their families wouldn’t have been in a mess and their career wouldn’t have been in a mess.”
One of the officers Schumann spent time with to research the intricate and intimate details which make ‘Graduation Day’ so powerful was Queensland Senior Sargeant Daryl Green who was shot at close range in the face and shoulder when ambushed with two other police in their car in 2000.
The song’s opening lines reference a BP service station, which was where Green and his colleagues were when they called to a disturbance in a nearby cul-de-sac.
Green, like others Schumann has already shared the song with, said he believed every police officer would relate to its story.
“When he sings about the BP station, we were at one at 3am trying to have a coffee when we heard our call sign come over the police radio and we went to that cul-de-sac,” Sgt Green said.
“It takes you right back … and the lyrics about the road fatality. I saw my first one when I was a trainee, an old man crossing the road just trying to make his way home.”
Green said he had been shocked by the lack of understanding of PTSD as he battled depression during his long recovery from the shooting.
“Hopefully this song will help officers to seek help, to realise that is just being human,” he said.
“And I would like it to create understanding from the community so they don’t just remember the last speeding ticket they got but that police are risking their lives to protect them and their families.”
Police Federation of Australia president Mark Carroll said a recent Beyond Blue study of first-responders revealed suicidal thoughts among police officers are twice as common than in the general population and police and other emergency services workers are three times more likely to have a suicide plan.
Those disturbing findings galvanised the PFA resolve to put mental health of police on the national agenda.
He said shift work and the hypervigilance required by the job could have a psychological as well as physical effect.
The idea of having a song to spotlight PTSD came after the PFA commissioned a telemovie called Dark Blue, to eradicate stigma around mental health in the forces.
It was funded via the proceeds of crime accounts and is expected to screen later this year.
“I am hoping Graduation Day, a song about cops for cops, will become a cathartic anthem for those struggling with issues of mental health because of their work and cut through to the community and help them understand that this work can be challenging for some,” Mr Carroll said.
“For officers with PTSD, this song says no one is leaving you behind. They come to us as whole humans and should expect to retire intact.”
Graduation Day is available via iTunes and the digital version Schumann’s latest record Ghost and Memories, with proceeds directed to supporting police and their families affected by PTSD.
For more information, visit the Police Federation of Australia’s website.
LYRICS TO ‘GRADUATION DAY’ BY JOHN SCHUMANN
We were out on the highway, up on the ridge
down past the BP, under the bridge
out of the darkness and into the light
we hit the red and blues on a hot March night
Kids in a Camry, both on the run
both got an attitude, one’s got a gun
sometimes it seems I’m just marking time
waiting for the call to the thin blue line
They were way too fast, so we slowed down
they hit a family going to town
now I’m standing on the road with a kid in my arms
a tiny little girl I just pulled from the car
Someone spoke — I just didn’t hear,
someone else tried — I just wasn’t there
I’d gone walkabout — God knows where …
The radio was alive that night
red and blues flashing on a hot March night
your head says run but your heart says stay
but I made a promise — on Graduation Day …
Dad was a copper, general patrol
45 years before he got too old
He said, “You’re never quite as tough as people think you are ….
… you’ll be living on your nerves and living on a prayer …”
There’s a shadow on the corner, shadow with a gun
standing in the doorway there’s a broken-hearted mum
fear is a phantom in the corner of your mind
when you’re waiting for the call to the thin blue line
He gave me a warrant card, I gave him a salute
I turned round smartly on my heel and marched back to the group
Mum and Dad were there in the stands,
we cheered and threw our caps
that's how everybody starts in the job -and there was no way back …
but nights like this, on the side of the road,
I’d give it all away
no one ever told me it would be like this … on Graduation Day ….
Rough, tough, bullet-proof, 10 foot tall
Serve and protect, answer the call
Out on afternoon shift, eating in the car
crumbs on my uniform, crumbs on the floor
Out of the safety into the fray
run to the trouble when they’re running away
your heart says go but your head says stay
Sometimes I think it’s just a matter of time
till my number comes up on the thin blue line
Fear’s just a phantom in the corner of my mind
The radio was alive that night
red and blues flashing on a hot March night
your head says run but your heart says stay
but I made a promise — on Graduation Day
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