Barry Sadler

Barry Sadler achieved national fame for his 1960s hit song, The Ballad of The Green Berets. The song was used as the theme song for the John Wayne film, The Green Berets. Sadler was a real-life war hero. He joined the U.S. Army and went through the grueling training to become a Green Beret. A member of the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), he served in Viet-Nam as a Special Forces medic attached to both an A=Team and a MIKE Force. Wounded in combat, he received the Purple Heart, the National Defense Medal, and the Viet-Nam Service Medal. He briefly acted in the movies and on television, with his biggest role being in the B-heist film, Dayton's Devils. The former Green Beret, war hero, song writer, singer, and actor, died in a mysterious shooting in a Central American country at the age of 47.