Tomorrow is Veterans Day. Families all over the country will think about the people they love who once wore a uniform, and one of those veterans happens to be the biggest singer who ever lived.
Elvis Presley was supposed to report for duty in January 1958. He got a short delay so he could finish a movie, and then in March 1958 he joined the US Army like any other young man. He did his basic training at Fort Hood, Texas. That fall he was sent to West Germany to join the 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32nd Armor, part of the 3rd Armored Division.
News cameras were there the day he reached Germany, and it’s worth watching just to see the most famous face in the world trying to be one more new soldier in line.
Elvis arriving in Germany as a young soldier in 1958
So what did the King of Rock n’ Roll actually do over there?
His first job was driving a jeep. He was the driver for Sergeant Ira Jones, who led a reconnaissance platoon in Company C. It wasn’t glamorous work, and that was sort of the point.
Home was a rented house at 14 Goethestrasse in Bad Nauheim. He lived off post for a simple family reason. His father, Vernon, and his grandmother Minnie Mae had come over to live with him, and the Army listed them as his dependents.
Darrell C. Richardson was an officer who served nearby, and he later wrote about the famous young private. “He was well-liked by his fellow soldiers and asked for no special favors,” Richardson wrote. Elvis was even offered a cushy Special Services job, the kind of easy job a big star could have grabbed. He turned it down.
This collection of footage runs from the day he joined in March 1958 all the way to 1960, so you can follow him through his time in uniform.
Real footage of Elvis during his Army years
The other men noticed something else.
According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, “Presley’s fellow soldiers described him as generous.” The first example on the VA’s list is a surprise. Elvis bought extra fatigues for the unit. Fatigues are the plain work uniforms soldiers wear every single day, so he made sure the men he served with had a second set.
He didn’t stop there. The VA says he also purchased televisions for the post. Richardson remembered it the same way, writing that soon after Elvis arrived in Germany he bought a TV for the dormitory room he shared with several other men.
And his Army paycheck? The VA says he donated his Army salary to charity.
Nobody has an exact count of how many uniforms or TV sets there were. What stuck with people was that he did it quietly, as one of the guys.
If you want the bigger story of his service from start to finish, this history feature lays it out.
A look back at Elvis’s time in the Army
Elvis kept doing the job. On Jan 20, 1960, at Grafenwoehr, he was promoted to sergeant. A couple of months later, in March 1960, he was honorably discharged and headed home.
He’d spent two years as a regular soldier, and the clean uniforms and the TV in the room were what the men beside him talked about later.
So tomorrow, when you thank a veteran in your own family, you can add one more name to the list.