SSgt Barry Sadler was born on January 11, 1940 in Carlsbad New Mexico. His parents, John and Bebe were professional gamblers and they divorced shortly after his birth. Tragically, his father died of a rare type of cancer at the age of 36. Barry dropped out of high school in Colorado in the 10th grade. He hitchhiked across the country and eventually enlisted in the air force. At the age of only 17, he was stationed in Japan. Sadler soon grew bored, however and decided to try the army for more excitement. Sadler became a Staff Sergeant of the U.S. Army Special Forces (aka the Green Berets). He served in Vietnam until injuring his leg in a booby trap.
His most noteworthy single was "The Ballad of the Green Berets" which was released on May 2nd, 1966 and eventually reached the #1 spot on the U.S. singles chart. It held the #1 spot for 5 weeks, which is no small feat. This song is no exception to Sadler's usual patriotic, military-themed songs, and it struck a chord with Americans desperate for something to identify with during the U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Book written by Barry Sadler
Sadler also began a series of novels about soldiers fighting their way through the centuries called "The Casca Novel Series".
Barry got into quite a bit of trouble in 1978 when he was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the death of country song-writer Lee Emerson Bellamy. The two men had been fighting over a woman named Darlene Sharp, who was Bellamy's former girlfriend and Sadler's current at the time. He was sentenced to 4-5 years in prison, but that time was eventually reduced to 21 days due to the circumstances of the case.
A year before he died, he was shot in the head during a robbery attempt at his Guatemala home and suffered brain damage as a result. Many rumors still abound about why and how he was shot. Some say he was funding the Contras, or was showing off for a girlfriend with a gun. The official story is that it was a robbery. Sadler remained in a coma for several months after he was shot and did not regain his health. He died at age 49 in the hospital of heart failure on May 11, 1989.
