Elvis - november 3

1958

Elvis and his Company C arrived in Grafenwohr, Bavaria, on the Czech border.
Elvis had to endure the same field conditions like everybody else.
Elvis is promoted to Private First Class for his endeavours in field exercises

Elvis's friend Lamar Fike said:

One night some military genius decided to post Elvis on guard duty. That was completely fair, of course, but also seriously dumb. Because Elvis was huge in Europe and the fans must have had some kind of radar, because whenever Elvis was exposed where the public could get him, they appeared in droves. And this night a huge crowd gathered, with Elvis doing guard duty at some gate.

There he was standing like he was supposed to, but surrounded, absolutely surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of fans. It took platoons to rescue him. That was the last guard duty Elvis pulled.

Elvis' army MOS was tank gunner. Which I guess, looking back, was a pretty appropriate assignment. Elvis loved guns, and these were big guns. But there was a problem, because those guns were loud. And one day Elvis came home and I asked him how it went that day and he walked right on past me. I followed him into the bedroom and said, 'Hey, didn't you hear me?' 'What are you talking about?' Elvis answered, and I realized he hadn't heard a word I'd said. I asked him if he was all right and he said, 'My ears are ringing so loud I can't even hear'. I immediately got Colonel Parker on the phone in the states and told him we had a problem.

A big problem. Colonel Tom knew a guy at the Pentagon, and he just wore this man's butt out until they reassigned Elvis out of that damned tank.