When the Green Berets Come Home
1968 · Monument 1115 · USA
- Artist
- Ty Herrington
- Title
- When the Green Berets Come Home
- Release
- When the Green Berets Come Home / A Gun Don't Make a Man
- Year
- 1968
- Label
- Monument # 1115
- Format
- 7" · Single
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Genre
- Pop · Pop
- Primary theme
- US 'Patriotic' / Pro-Government / Anti-Protest Songs
Annotation
Captain Ty Herrington returned from Vietnam in 1968 and released the plight of the soldier / patriotic track "When the Green Berets Come Home" (Monument Records # 1115). Wounded three time in 18 months in Vietnam, Herrington killed himself just a year after the release of the record, during the 1969 Christmas season, possibly suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the track the narrator asked for understanding for the soldiers, returning home from Vietnam, because of the bloody battles and the loss of friends from the army who had died defending America's honour: Herrington married Chris Noel, a Hollywood actress and radio show host, as reported in her home town paper, the Palm Beach Daily News (4 January 1969). (1) Noel became a DJ for the Armed Forces Radio Network in 1965, with a show called "A Date with Chris", recorded in the US on 33rpm LPs, and then sent onto US Vietnam radio stations. Some people viewed the show as America's answer to Hanoi Hannah, the North Vietnamese radio DJ (of which there are several songs about, including on the 1973 album Roger McGuinn). (2) North Vietnam actually put a $10,000 bounty on her head. In December 1966 she joined Bob Hope on…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
Unknown - the full contemporary billing is "Capt. Ty Herrington U.S. Special Forces - Green Berets": "When The Green Berets Come Home" b/w "A Gun Don't Make A Man" (Monument 45-1115, 1968), both sides written by the noted Nashville songwriter Boudleaux Bryant; the A-side is anthologised on the Bear Family "...Next Stop Is Vietnam" box. Whether "Capt." reflects a real rank or promotional framing is undocumented, and no biography exists. [Source: Discogs; AllMusic]