[Aktungbby]

Hendrix completed hisparatrooper training in just over eight months, and Major General C. W. G. Rich awarded him the prestigious Screaming Eagles patch on January 11, 1962...

One of the most notable renditions of the anthem was Jimi Hendrix's screaming solo guitar performance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, captured on the documentary the event. Closing the four day show..clad in Red, White, and Blue, Hendrix played the anthem with a number of distorted regressions — some mimicking the "rockets" and "bombs" of the anthem's lyrics — to great acclaim from the audience.

Although contemporary political pundits described his interpretation as a statement against the Vietnam War, three weeks later Hendrix explained its meaning: "We're all Americans ... it was like 'Go America!'... We play it the way the air is in America today.

He played it out of respect and he put his sweet, sweet licks all over it out of love. It's a masterpiece and the only rendition of the SSB that anyone will ever remember, ever. People have been listening to it repeatedly for 47 years in awe. We are still talking about it.