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Barry A. Sadler
Staff Sergeant, U.S. Army

Barry A. Sadler was born on 1 November 1940 in Carlsbad, NM, the second son of John and Bebe Littlefield of Sadler of Phoenix, AZ. His parents were both professional gamblers and the family moved often. His parents divorced when Sadler was very young, and his father died not long after of a rare form of nervous system cancer at the age 36. His mother took her sons with her as she worked at temporary jobs in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. According to Sadler's autobiography, "I'm a Lucky One," his father developed a successful plumbing and electrical business in Carlsbad, NM. He also owned several farms in the area. He describes his mother as managing restaurants and bars and, at times, games in casinos.

Military Service

Enlistment

Sadler dropped out of high school in Leadville, CO, in the tenth grade. After a year of hitchhiking across the country, he enlisted at age 17 in the U.S. Air Force. He was trained as a radar technician and was stationed in Japan. At the end of his three-year service, Sadle

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Author chronicles 'Green Beret' singer Barry Sadler

In the 1960s, it may have been the most unlikely pop hit.

Against an insistent drum beat and a rising chorus of voices, Army Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler sang about "fighting soldiers from the sky, fearless men who jump and die."

The song was "The Ballad of the Green Berets," and in the spring of 1966 it hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, eventually becoming the year's biggest seller.

Sadler knew of what he sang. He was a Green Beret combat medic who had been wounded in the then-widening Vietnam War.

For a short time, Sadler was a major celebrity, releasing an album of songs in the "Green Beret" vein and appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

But fame was fleeting, and Sadler soon drifted out of the public consciousness. He was largely forgotten when he died in 1989, a year after being shot in Guatemala.

Marc Leepson has chronicled Sadler's unlikely and ultimately tragic life in a book called "Ballad of the Green Beret." Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m., he will discuss the book and sign copies at City Center Gallery and Books in downto

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Barry Sadler (November 1, 1940 – November 5, 1989) was an American author and musician. Sadler 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 of Staff Sergeant as SSgt Barry Sadler.

Sadler was born in Carlsbad, New Mexico, the second son of John Sadler and Bebe Littlefield of Phoenix, Arizona. Sadler's parents divorced shortly afterward, with his father dying of a rare form of nervous system cancer at age 36. Littlefield took Sadler's older brother, Robert, to various places in the Southwest, working temporary jobs in Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

Unable to score another major hit, although "The A-Team" was a top-30 Billboard charted single in 1966, Sadler took to writing books. He chose to write about soldiers, but his series of novels took a turn far different from his music. His "Casca" series centers on the title character, Casca Rufio Longinius (a sort of combination of Longinus and The Wanderi