Barry Sadler

Barry Allen Sadler (November 1, 1940 – November 5, 1989) was an American singer-songwriter and author whose military service influenced his work. After a stint in the United States Air Force, Sadler served in the United States Army as a Green Beret medic, achieving the rank of staff sergeant. He served in the Vietnam War from late December 1964 to late May 1965. Most of his work has a military theme, and he is best known for his patriotic song "The Ballad of the Green Berets", a number-one hit in 1966. He died at age 49 after being shot in the head in Guatemala City.

Sadler was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, the second son of John Sadler (1911–1948) and Bebe Littlefield (1917–2003) of Phoenix, Arizona. According to Sadler's autobiography, I'm a Lucky One, his father developed a successful plumbing and electrical business in Carlsbad and owned several farms in the area. He describes his mother as managing restaurants and bars, and at times, games in casinos.

The family relocated often. His parents divorced when Sadler was five, and his father died not long after at age 36 from a rare form of nervous system cancer. His mother moved her family around as she worked at temporary jobs in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

Sadler dropped out of high school in the 10th grade in Leadville, Colorado. In 1958, at 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. He finished his GED certificate while in the Air Force. He trained as a radar technician in 1958, and was stationed in Japan. After his discharge in 1961, Sadler enlisted in the U.S. Army, and volunteered for Airborne and Special Forces, opting to be a medic.

After completing airborne training, he underwent training as a combat medic at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In May 1965, while he was on a combat patrol southeast of Pleiku in the Vietnam Central Highlands, he was severely wounded in the knee by a feces-covered punji stick. Sadler dressed the wound with a cotton swab and an adhesive bandage, then completed the patrol; however, he subsequently developed a serious infection in his leg, and was evacuated to Clark Air Base Hospital in the Philippines. Doctors were forced to surgically enlarge the wound to drain it and to administer large doses of penicillin. Sadler returned to Fort Bragg, where he made a complete recovery.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.