Flashback: Ballad of the Green Berets!

In 1966 (before I was born!), Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler recorded his #1 Billboard Hot 100 song, the Ballad of the Green Berets. It's a simple ballad that praised America's elite Army division, the Green Berets, and it's one of the few songs recorded during the Vietnam War that was pro-military, and yet it still went to #1 on the charts. Here are the lyrics:

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