'The Ballad Of The Green Beret' speaks for itself, it is an awesome song. 'I'm A Lucky One' is about a soldier who is about to be shipped back Stateside.

Fighting soldiers from the sky,
Fearless men who jump and die.
Men who mean just what they say.
The brave men of the Green Beret.

Silver wings upon their chest,
These are men America's best.
One hundred men will test today,
But only three win the Green Beret.

Trained to live off nature's land,
Trained in combat hand to hand.
Men who fight by night and day,
Courage take from the Green Beret.

Silver wings upon their chest,
These are men America's best.
One hundred men will test today,
But only three win the Green Beret.

Back at home a young wife waits,
Her Green Beret has met his fate.
He has died for those oppressed,
Leaving her his last request.

Put silver wings on my son's chest,
Make him one of America's best.
He'll be a man they'll test one day.
Have him win, the Green Beret.

Barry Sadler, in full Barry Allen Sadler, (born November 1, 1940, U.S.—died November 5, 1989, Tennessee), American soldier, singer, songwriter, and pulp-fiction author who is principally remembered for his best-selling “ The Ballad of the Green Berets.”Sadler’s parents divorced in 1945, three years before his father’s death. The young Sadler and his mother moved around the U.S. Southwest before settling in 1950 in, where Sadler attended public school, dropping out of after completing the 10th grade.

Sadler then joined the in June 1958 and served for four years, including a year in, where he became proficient in martial arts and where he earned a GED. He received an honorable discharge in June of 1962.With few job prospects, Sadler returned to military service, this time joining the in 1962. After completing airborne training, he volunteered for, choosing to be a medic. He trained at Fort Brooke Army Medical Center in, the U.S.

Army Hospital at Fort Jackson, and the Advanced Medical Training School at Fort Bragg, finishing in December of 1963. On July 18, 1963, he had married Lavona Edelman, a 19-year-old (WAC) nurse. Sadler served in from late December 1964 to late May 1965, when he was medically evacuated to the for treatment for an infected punji stake wound. For most of his tour of duty, Sadler served as a medic with the 5th Special Forces Group’s Detachment A-216 at Camp Hardy in Plei Do Lim in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. He and the team’s other medics administered to the medical needs of the local hill people, the, as well as to other civilians.

The medics also treated their own team members who had been injured or wounded and led Montagnards into the field on combat and reconnaissance patrols and ambushes. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription.As a boy, Sadler had played the flute, harmonica, drums, and guitar—although he never took a lesson and could not read. Sadler picked up the guitar again during his time in the Air Force and joined a short-lived trio after his discharge.

He began composing a song about the Green Berets during his Special Forces medic training. With the help of Special Forces Lieut. Gerry Gitell, Sadler signed a songwriter’s contract with a New York music company in July 1964. He worked on the Green Beret song in Vietnam and after recuperating from his wounds at Fort Bragg.

In November 1965, while still on active duty, Sadler signed a recording contract with RCA Records. In December he recorded a dozen songs in, including “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” the tune he had been working on for several years, which pays tribute to his fellow Special Forces soldiers.

RCA released the single and an album titled Ballads of the Green Berets in January 1966. The song reached No.

1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart in late February and stayed there for five weeks, going on to sell more than nine million records. The album sold some two million copies and hit No.1 on Billboard’s best-selling albums chart in early April.The sent Sadler on a 15-month nationwide tour to promote the song and the Special Forces.

Sadler left the military in May 1967, intending to make a career in show business. A second album sold reasonably well, but the handful of recordings he made after that were unsuccessful. On December 1, 1978, Sadler shot and killed Lee Emerson Bellamy, a former singer, in. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and served less than 30 days in a minimum security jail. Having left show business around that time, Sadler wrote 29 pulp fiction books beginning in 1977, 22 of them in a series called Casca: The Eternal Mercenary.Sadler moved to in the 1980s, where he wrote books, provided medical care to impoverished Mayan people, and was involved in arms selling.

On September 7, 1988, he was shot in the head in. Witnesses and the police said he accidently shot himself.

Others claimed he was the victim of a robbery or assassination attempt. Friends flew him to Nashville, where he was operated on at the hospital.

After the operation, he was left quadriplegic and confined to a hospital bed with brain damage until his death.