CoronaVinyl Day 143 (Military Theme): Ballads of the Green Berets by Barry Sadler

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Apologies for the CoronaVinyl hiatus.  I had to take last week off, as it was the first week of e-learning for my kids, so the house was in a general status of chaos as all three of my kids settled into their routines.  I was also displaced for a few days from my normal work spot, which is in the living room, where the record player is, so I couldn't listen to vinyl while working, as I otherwise would have been doing.  Anywho, I'm back in my spot, even if Son's e-learning workspace is only a few feet from me.  Regardless, it's time to restart CoronaVinyl.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "military theme," and I'm going with what I assume is one of the best-selling albums sung by currently enlisted military man, Ballads of the Green Berets by Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, released in 1966.  Sadler was a combat medic for the U.S. Army's Special Forces (aka, the Green Berets) in the Vietnam War.  The songs on the album were written during his training and tour of duty in Vietnam, and 

During a combat patrol in May 1965, Sadler was severely injured when he fell into a mantrap and was struck in the leg by a pungi stake -- a poisoned spear made of sharpened bamboo that was covered with feces to boot!  He treated the wound, finished his patrol, and then eventually had to be evacuated to a U.S. air base hospital in the Philippines because the would had become infected.  He had surgery, resulting in a 12-inch scar on his knee, and returned to the U.S. to Fort Bragg, where he completed his recovery and then continued his duties as a Medical NCO for the Green Berets until his honorable discharge in 1967.

He is best known for the title track -- "The Ballad of the Green Berets" -- which he started writing when he was in training.  The song was co-written by Robin Moore, who wrote the book, The Green Berets.  Released in January 1966, "The Ballad of the Green Berets" spent five weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was later named the #1 song on the Billboard Year End chart for 1966.

The album itself also reached #1 on both the Billboard album chart and the Billboard country album chart.  The songs are kind of a mix of folk, country, and patriotic music.  All of the songs relate to being a soldier in Vietnam.

Given how much of a lightning rod for protest the Vietnam War became, it's kind of hard to imagine that this song and album were such huge hits.  That said, public opinion didn't really start to turn against the war until 1967, so Sadler came along at the right time.

After his discharge from the Army, Sadler had some minor acting roles and then became a pulp fiction writer, starting the Casca novel series in 1979.  He also killed a guy in 1978 in a love triangle spat, but only served a short sentence as part of a plea bargain because he thought the guy had a gun.  In 1984, he moved to Guatemala, where, in 1988, he himself was shot in the head while in a taxi in Guatemala City.  He was airlifted back to the States, was in a coma for six weeks, and never fully recovered.  The injury left him a quadriplegic with significant brain damage, and he spent most of the rest of life in VA hospitals before dying in November 1989 at the age of 49.

The Spotify version of the album contains a bonus track, Sadler's only other hit, 1966's "The 'A' Team," which reached #28 on the Billboard Hot 100, presumably written about a crack commando unit that was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit, but who promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground and are still wanted by the government, surviving as soldiers of fortune.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Salute to the Nurses"

While this one is an ode to military nurses in Vietnam, it applies equally today, as our trusty nurses are on the front lines of COVID.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Bamiba"
This song has a Latin feel, and it's about a soldier who gets drunk and ends up in Vietnam jail.