This morning at the range, a few of us old timers sitting around BSing, I learned that the lyrics were written, in part for the 1st Green Beret to die in Nam & first native Hawaiian. The versus mentioning Gabriel by name was never used in the recorded version.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: He was the first Special Forces soldier and the first Hawaiian to be killed in the Vietnam War.
Gabriel, 24, a specialist 5, and Sgt. Wayne Marchand were executed by Viet Cong sympathizers on April 8, 1962, during a training mission in a remote village seven miles from Da Nang. A 1962 Time magazine report said Gabriel and Marchand were in the third night of a two-week field exercise near the village of An Chau, 360 miles north of Saigon, when they were killed. His group was attacked at daybreak. Gabriel was shot three times in the chest and stomach while calling vainly for reinforcements.
Before he fell, Gabriel radioed a final message to the base at Da Nang: "Ammunition is running short and we are being overrun." He was captured and later killed.
http://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=273520
Bookmarks