"Put silver wings on my son's chest, make him one of America's best! He'll be a man they'll test one day; have him win the Green Beret" - Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler (1940-1989) "The Ballad of the Green Berets" (Recorded January 1966 and Number One for 5 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 (3/5/66 thru 4/1/66). Awarded Top Single for the Year of 1966 by Billboard)
The ultimate Courage and Bravery song in our lifetime, Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler (1940-1989) will be forever immortalized by this song of the Green Berets, which also prompted the making of a 1968 movie titled "The Green Berets," starring John Wayne, David Janssen, George Takai (Sulu on Star Trek), Jim Hutton and Aldo Ray. This was nominally based on the 1965 Book of the same name by Robin Moore, but completely prompted by the popularity of SSgt Sadler's moving rendition of the Ballad a year later.
Think about what was happening in the mid 1960's at the time of the recording: anti-sentiment toward the Vietnam War was just beginning, as groups like the Beatles and others were beginning to spread the message of "Make Love, not War" across the radio dial. Woodstock would not happen for another 4 years and 4 months at Yasgur's Farm (August 15-18, 1969, less than a month after Neil Armstrong placed the first footprint on the Moon), but this was still a Nation at unrest as indicated by the Los Angeles Riots (more commonly known as the "Watts Riots" - August 1965) just a few months after the release of this number one song.
Yet, through all of the adversity at home, the racial unrest and the political overtones that made the Vietnam War extremely unpopular with the youth of the '60's (Smothers' Brothers, anyone? "The Mama's and the Papa's" and Jimi Hendrix; need I say more?), we persevered through it all. However, our Vietnam Vets came home to nothing; no "Hero's Welcome" or "Ticker-Tape Parades" like the men and women of WW2 experienced. Instead, they came home being called "Baby Killers" thanks to an ever present Media that exposed the seedy side of War as opposed to the valor of the Men and Women that experienced life on "China Beach" (a very popular TV show from 1988 through 1991 - starring Dana Delany and featuring Billboard's number two song "Reflections" by Diana Ross and the Supremes (1967) as the music for the opening credits). Only recently (the past two and a half Decades) have we turned around public sentiment and began treating Vietnam Veterans with the respect and admiration they deserve. Every time I meet a Vietnam Vet for the first time, I thank them for their service to our Country, for they deserve no less than that - and much, much more. I'm thankful that "The Wall" exists, having grown up in Corning, Iowa and having one (only one, mind you - but one is hard enough) of our native sons KIA in Vietnam in 1968. This way, he is immortalized forever and never forgotten. He graduated from HS with one of the members of my family. PFC Ronald Bunting was born on August 1, 1945, graduated with my oldest brother, Joseph (Jon) Jonathan Cook III (June 28, 1945 - October 18, 2005) in May 1963, and was killed by hostile action in South Vietnam on February 10, 1968.
I knew Ron only briefly, as I was 4 when they graduated from HS, but I remember him coming back to Corning on leave in his Military Uniform, and the town opening up it's arms to greet him. We were far removed from the hatred that we saw on the TV towards the War, and we loved our War Heroes. Ron was one of those, and was placed in the Bandstand in Corning's Central Park on a Saturday night, side by side with those Veterans from the Korean War, WW2 and WW1 (as we had many in our town of 2,000 people that served in one, two or all three wars). Mayor Lee Elliott declared that day as "Ron Bunting Day," and we never forgot that day in 1967. Less than a year later, he was gone, and Presidential Candidate Eugene McCarthy was in our Independence Day Parade, decrying the Vietnam War as "wasteful and useless." Not a good way to commemorate our War Heroes, and thankfully he was never a factor in the Democratic Primaries that year. At that time, Corning was the National HQ of the National Farmer's Organization (NFO - founded by Oren Lee Staley of Rea, MO in 1955 - my Dad was instrumental in bringing the fledgling organization to Corning as he was beginning his run for Mayor and wanted to build Corning as a Center for Industry, a dream shared with him by Austin B. Turner III, my Dad's best friend and later the Chairman of the Iowa Department of Transportation - then the Iowa State Highway Commission -from 1984-1992), and we would often have Presidential Candidates in Corning every 4 years just before the Iowa Caucuses as they wanted the Farm vote; President Jimmy Carter came to Corning in January 1976 (then Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter) and addressed our Student Body that month, my Senior Year in High School. We experienced politics and the National Spotlight more than most small towns in the Nation, having made the National Nightly News on CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN (after 1980 when they began Broadcasting) many times from 1956 through 1990, the year that NFO moved to Ames, IA.
This Journal is dedicated to the Vietnam Veterans and the Citizens of Corning, Iowa, both true Patriots in my book. As Bill O'Reilly so eloquently put it in "Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama," our Vietnam Veterans epitomize TRUE PATRIOTISM!
Fighting soldiers from the sky
Fearless men who jump and die
Men who mean just what they say
The brave men of the Green Beret
Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America's best
One hundred men we'll test today
But only three win the Green Beret
Trained to live, off nature's land
Trained in combat, hand to hand
Men who fight by night and day
Courage deep, from the Green Beret
Silver wings upon their chest
These are men, America's best
One hundred men we'll test today
But only three win the Green Beret
Back at home a young wife waits
Her Green Beret has met his fate
He has died for those oppressed
Leaving her this last request
Put silver wings on my son's chest
Make him one of America's best
He'll be a man they'll test one day
Have him win the Green Beret
- SSgt Barry Sadler
Think about it . . .
Yogi: 10/16/2010 9:22AM CDT
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