Johnny Cash's signature songs include "Song of the Patriot," "I've Been Everywhere," "Ragged Old Flag," "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," "I Walk the Line," "Ring of Fire," "Rock Island Line," and "Man in Black."
Having sold over 90 million records encompassing country, rock, blues, folk and gospel music, he's considered one of the best-selling musicians of all time.
Less well known is that Cash enlisted in the Air Force on July 7, 1950, completing basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, technical training at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, and radio intercept training at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi.
He was then assigned to the 12th Radio Squadron Mobile of the Air Force Security Service stationed in Landsberg, West Germany, where he worked as a Morse code operator intercepting Soviet transmissions.
Cash was allegedly the first American to hear of Joseph Stalin's death on March 5, 1953, through an intercepted message. Stalin was the political leader of the Soviet Union.
While at Landsberg, he created his first band, The Landsberg Barbarians, and wrote his hit song, "Folsom Prison Blues."
On July 3, 1954, Cash was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant, and his music career took off. However, he never forgot the troops. In 1962, he went on a three-week USO tour of Japan and South Korea.
In 1969, he and his wife, June Carter Cash, visited service members stationed in South Vietnam on another USO tour.
"I went to support our guys because I loved them so much," Cash said, according to the book, "Ring of Fire: The Johnny Cash Reader."
He said they did seven or eight shows daily, sometimes for only 10 people in a hospital ward. During that tour, which he said deeply moved him, Cash recorded several songs that are featured on his posthumous album, "Johnny Cash: Bootleg Vol. 3." He also said his 1969 USO tour to Vietnam inspired the 1971 song "Singing In Vietnam Talkin' Blues."
Cash was born on Feb. 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas, and grew up in Dyess, Arkansas. During the Depression years, he worked in the cotton fields of eastern Arkansas.
Vivian Liberto was his first wife, whom he met in San Antonio, Texas, while he was in the Air Force. They had four daughters but divorced in 1966. She died in 2005 at age 71.
Two years later, Cash married June Carter, who was touring with him. The couple produced the hit song "We Got Married in a Fever." They both died in 2003; she was 73, and he was 71.