Elvis Aron Presley - rocker, soldier, legend ... born January 8th, 1935. His twin, Jesse Garon Presley, did not survive.

To all of my Flickr friends:
Hope you have a great day tomorrow, which is this man's birthday.

No, it's *not* me, although I was also in the 3rd Armored Division in Germany a wee bit later than he was :)

Patrick

I've always been attracted to this period in Elvis' life as I was in the U.S. Army's 3rd Armored Division in Frankfurt from January 1986 to June 1989. Our front gate (Edwards Kaserne on Homburgerlandstraße) had a horse statue that could be seen briefly in his film "G.I. Blues". I felt privileged to at least have walked some ground that Elvis did, and have felt a strange connection to him that way.

I read a book by one of his officers that told the real story of his service - how he was drafted at the height of his popularity and went to the Army. He was proud to serve. Like many Americans at the time (like my own father), he went without question. He was initially assigned to be a driver for a major, but quickly decided he wanted to be like everyone else in his unit - a cavalry scout. He learned his job well, was inquisitive and knowledgeable, and got down and dirty in the peacetime training at Grafenwöhr, Hohenfels or Wildflecken like everyone else (me included, some 30 years later) ...

The only special treatment he got from the Army was that he was allowed to, as a single soldier, live off-post (which helped cut down *some* of the hordes that gathered outside the Kaserne gate daily while he was there ...)