[SR-25]

Real-life soldier paid tribute to Green Berets in song



This week in 1988, S/Sgt. Barry Sadler was shot in the head as he got into a taxi in Guatemala. At the time he was reportedly training anti-communist Contra fighters.


The shooting resulted in severe brain damage and a year-long hospitalization before his death.



Twenty-three years earlier, Sadler had scored the No. 1 record release for 1966-according to Billboard Magazine.


Barry Sadler had written a tribute to his fellow soldiers. He recorded the song Dec. 18, 1965, and the record was released Jan. 11, 1966. At the time, America was embroiled in the Vietnam War and the record was an immediate success. The single became RCA Victor's biggest selling single of all time and sold more than a million copies in its first two weeks on the market!



After high school, Sadler served four years in the Air Force. He wasdischarged in 1962 and formed a band that played in clubs and bars in New Mexico-but with little success-so he rejoined the military. This time he joined the Army and signed up for airborne school. He was trained as a combat medic and won his green beret.



But he didn't completely give up on music and while stationed at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, he began writing songs. He was later sent to Vietnam, where he was injured as he fell into a punji stake booby trap. The poisoned bamboo stake pierced his leg. He was finally rescued but was left with a permanent scar and a numb feeling in the leg.


While he was recuperating, a friend suggested he write a song about Special Forces. Sadler wrote a 12-verse song that wound up with Robin Moore, author of "The Green Berets." Moore re-wrote the song and Sadler recorded it for a small budget record label. The record started gaining popularity in the military so Moore took the record to RCA Victor Records who agreed to finance a full-scale recording session.



At the height of the record's success, Sadler was given leave from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to appear on Ed Sullivan and Jimmy Dean's network TV programs.



The song became an international hit and prompted the release of an album of the same title-which also sold well.



But his follow-up single of "The A-Team," fell flat and Barry Sadler's music career was over.



He later re-enlisted in the Army.



Barry Sadler died in a Murfreesboro, Tenn., hospital on Nov. 5, 1989.



"The Ballad Of The Green Beret's" entered the country music charts Feb. 19, 1966 and peaked at No. 2, where it stayed for two weeks.



It was also pop music's No. 1 record the week of March 5, 1966-and stayed there for five weeks.