My folks had that 45 rpm when I was a kid. I think my brother has it now. I haven't listened to it in maybe 40 years. I vaguely recall it had something appropriate for Memorial Day and sure enough, Wiki delivered:
The lyrics were written in honor of Green Beret US Army Specialist 5 James Gabriel, Jr., the first native Hawaiian to die in Vietnam, who was killed by Viet Cong gunfire while on a training mission on April 8, 1962. One verse mentioned Gabriel by name, but it wasn't included in the recorded version. link
3 comments:
Gabriel was also the first american killed in 'Nam IIRC.
The Demonstration Detachment at Fort Bragg is named in his honor.
For whatever reason, I've been familiar with that song for a "veriest" long time. One of the things I liked most about the band in which my now-husband (of 21 and almost 1/2 years) before I married him was deeply involved is that it included this mostly unremembered [even then] song. I thought, then: This is a guy who's
My Aunt is friends with the daughter of the man who wrote the song. I forget her name, but she knit wool winter hats for me and my dad when I was a little kid. His hat was red and white striped with the red poof ball on top- it became iconic in our neighborhood. Mine was black and white stripe, no poof. Eventually mine turned into a neck gator. My dad lost his during jury duty one year, and the wonderful woman knit him another one.
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