Sept. 8: "Ballad of the Green Berets," Barry Sadler, died on this day in 1989...

... he was 48. Sadler wrote and performed songs with patriotic themes, and also wrote novels about war. 

The singer, songwriter and author was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico. He served as a Green Beret medic and Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Most of his works have military themes, and he billed himself under his military rank as SSgt Barry Sadler.


In the late 1970s, Sadler shot and killed country songwriter Lee Emerson. The shooting took place at night in front of Sadler's house. Pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter, Sadler was sentenced to four to five years in prison, but all but 30 days was suspended.

Sadler was shot in the head one night in a taxi cab Guatemala City. He was airlifted to the States by friends from the Soldier of Fortune Magazine, where he was hospitalized and remained in a coma for several months. He died little more than a year later in his mother's house in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Press links below to view You Tube videos:
-- "Ballad of the Green Berets"
-- "The A-Team"
-- "Saigon"