Enter Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler. Barry Sadler was a member of the "elite" U.S. Army fighting force known as the Green Berets. The Green Berets were the special forces, trained in combat and hand to hand. Sadler said they were "America's best." They had a mystique about them. Sadler had originally been in the Air Force but wanted to ratchet up the action. He joined the army and volunteered to be a paratrooper in Vietnam. The army decided he was courageous and that he would be a good fit with the special forces.
Sadler had done a tour of Vietnam, with the special forces, and he had been wounded. While recuperating in a military hospital, state-side, he composed military songs and played guitar. He sang his compositions to other wounded soldiers. One day a TV crew was filming at the hospital. They filmed Sadler singing one of his songs -- The Ballad of the Green Berets.
The TV station aired the segment, it created a sensation and RCA picked up the song. They recorded it, with professional background musicians, and it shot to number one. People, who wanted to believe in the honor of the Vietnam war, saw this as a great patriotic message. It stayed in the top ten for nine weeks. At the end of the year, it charted as the top song of 1966. He beat the Beatles in the USA. The song was even featured in the soundtrack of a John Wayne movie, The Green Berets. Take a look at the video of Barry Sadler on national television, then I will tell you the rest of his story.
Sadler never achieved another big hit. He released a couple other military tunes, but they failed to catch on. His one big tune was, a person might say, the biggest selling "novelty" song ever recorded in the USA. Sadler, riding on the fame of that song, went on the USO tour for awhile and, after active duty, he went to Nashville to record but he would never again repeat his success in music.
In the years that followed, Sadler had success as the writer of a series of adventure novels. The plot took place in ancient history -- featuring a Roman soldier who was a mercenary. Sadler wrote twenty-two such books and they sold. In the 1970's, he pled guilty to, and served time for, second-degree manslaughter after shooting a man who threatened him. He had thought the other man had a gun but the man did not. The tides were changing and things were not going well for Sadler.
In 1983, he moved to Central America. What he was doing there is disputed. Some say he was training and selling arms to the Nicaraguan contras, others believe he was just living there. In 1988 Sadler was returning to a hilltop home that he had established in Guatemala. As he was riding in a taxi, he received a gunshot to the head. People had speculated that it was a killing related to his life in Central America, or it was an armed robbery attempt. As a result of having read this post, I had a call from Robert Brown, executive editor of Soldier of Fortune magazine. Sadler was a columnist for that magazine and Soldier of Fortune paid to have him transported back home to the USA after the shooting. Robert Brown, who told me that he knows the details of the shooting, said that Sadler's shooting was accidental and involved Barry's own gun. Brown said it was not a robbery or an assassination. Regardless, Sadler passed away, heart failure, at his mother's home in 1989.This man, who had worked to conquer the pop music charts, died 23 years after his greatest achievement -- a number one hit song.
People, my age and older, remember the music of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, but few individuals know the rest of his story. If asked they probably think he is alive, older and working as a mechanic or an executive somewhere. Truth is, despite patriotism, fame and early success, his life was an American tragedy.
For more "Stories Behind the Music" click on the guitar 
Steven L. Smith
Bellingham WA Home Inspections
Check out "This Day In History" -- music and vintage television from the 1950's through the 1980's. I enjoy writing these articles because they take me back to my days in radio broadcasting. Click on Elvis' gold record, below, to revisit those golden hits of yesteryear.
wow I hav not heard that name or that song in a long long long time. I must be getting old. thanks for the post
I echo Charlie. In addition I did not know the rest of the story. Thank you for the rest of the story.
Hopefully Paul Harvey will not be coming after me. The Rest Of The Story.
Oh what a sad sad story....I don't know if the speculation at the end was true or not - but its true how each of us have the ability within to be both hero and still cross over to the darker side ...who knows what leads us to make those decisions?
That is a good story which I'd not heard. The war was horrid and took my children's dad. Seems as if I remember that the Green Berets also won disfavor later didn't they. Dig a little deeper and let us know.
Once again a post here at active rain resulted in an unexpected contact. After posting this, I had a call from Robert Brown, executive editor of Soldier of Fortune magazine. He said that he thought I should clarify how Sadler died. Sadler was a columnist for that magazine and a friend of Brown. Brown said that Barry's death was not an assasination nor murder, despite the fact that makes for interesting folklore. He said the shot in the head was an accident with Sadler's own gun and that there are two witnesses to that.
Some of the information Brown gave me has been incorporated into the blog above.
Barbara,
I am not a military expert, that is for sure. I know that JFK is the one who got the special forces wearing the Green Beret. After the Bay of Pigs fell apart he was accused of being soft on communists. His reaction was to make a strong stand with US involvement in Vietnam. The Green Beret symbolized these tough and clever US soldiers. Soldiers for their time. Anyway, the rest is history and several Presidents, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford had to deal with the decision.
I imagine some special forces have been involved in bad publicity over the years. I think that goes with the territory. I do not recall them being involved in any of the massacre scandals but many years have gone by. It seems that, today, we hear way more about the Navy Seals than the Green Berets. I believe they are still operating and an essential part of the military, currently in Iraq and Afganistan. They have a whole list of special actions they are involved in. Anyway, I believe they are still going along but with less publicity.
Steve, Great post. I've always remembered this song as a moving point in my life. It's nice to know the rest of the story. Maybe they should do a movie about this brave man.
Bob,
Sure to bad it did not end better. Hard to believe, having seen him on TV, that it would end like that. Seems like, somehow, he could have captured the momentum and made a better life.
I'm not so sure I believe Mr. Brown in this specific case since he might have an ulterior motive.
Personally, I haven't made up my mind because there's just too much conflicting information out there, and Mr. Brown's story is only one of them. It's too easy for someone to know the truth about someone else when that someone else is no longer around.
I do have the original obituary of Sadler's death in my collection, and I believe it also is available at various places on the Internet.
Hey, Steven.
I know. That's my whole point. He possibly has an ulterior motive here.
Remember that he was not the first one to find, or comment on, Sadler's body. He was only the one who, quite possibly, had a lot to lose if the truth were known, or not laid to rest properly.
Money can do powerful things to memories, and memories can do powerful things to money, too.
Well,
Obviously we will never know for sure. He seemed very credible to me, much more so than what I read online.
When I was in Vietnam we added a few words to this song. It went like this "100 men got jumped today, but only 3 received jump pay".
Richard,
Surprised by all the comments this post got. But your insider view is one we have not heard.