Elvis Presley In The Army: March 24, 1958 To September 1, 1960

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American singer and actor Elvis Presley served in the United States Army from 1958 to 1960. At the time of his enlistment, he was widely regarded as the most well-known name in the world of entertainment.
Before entering the Army, Presley had caused national outrage with his rock and roll music. Many parents, religious leaders, and teachers' groups welcomed his draft into the military. Despite being offered the chance to enlist in Special Services to entertain the troops and live in priority housing, Presley was persuaded by his manager to serve as a regular soldier. This earned him the respect of many of his fellow soldiers and people back in the United States who previously viewed him in a negative light.
During his service, Presley's life was affected in many ways. Not long before he was transferred to Germany,[1] his mother, Gladys Presley died of a heart attack brought on by acute hepatitis and cirrhosis at the age of 46. While he was living in Bad Nauheim, he met his future wife, Priscilla Beaulieu. He also became reliant on barbiturates and stimulants. Due to this unhealthy addiction, Presley and Beaulieu divorced in 1973. This same addiction partially contributed to his death at the age of 42 in 1977.[2]
After his release from the service, Presley found a new fan base among an older age group, thanks in part to his army career and releases of ballads compared to his earlier rock and roll songs.
On January 8, 1956, Presley became eligible to be drafted into the military at 21. Colonel Tom Parker, Presley's manager, was well aware of his client's draft status and how it could affect his career.[3] In the summer of 1956, Parker wrote to the Pentagon requesting that Presley be considered for Special Services, which would allow Presley to do only six weeks basic training and then resume life as normal, performing several times a year for the armed forces.[3] However, Parker had no intention of allowing Presley to sign up for Special Services, since Presley would have received no compensation for these performances besides standard military pay. Furthermore, each performance would have been recorded and filmed for sale to television stations worldwide. The armed forces would own the exclusive rights to these recordings, meaning all of the profits would be retained by the government. Parker was unwilling to allow anyone to enjoy Presley's talents let alone profit from them, effectively, for free.[3] Over the next twelve months, Parker led Presley to believe that it was still possible to avoid the draft completely,[3] while secretly planning to allow it. In his eyes, after a year of negative publicity, this was the perfect opportunity to change the view that older Americans had of him.[3] Parker explained to Presley that this was a situation neither of them could refuse. When Presley was told that he would have to serve as a regular soldier, he was furious that Parker failed to get him out of the draft. Parker promised Presley that if he worked hard and served as a regular GI for two years, he would return "a bigger star" than when he left.[3]
On January 4, 1957, Presley attended Kennedy Veterans Hospital in Memphis for a pre-induction army medical. On January 8, Presley's twenty-second birthday, he was declared 1-A by the Memphis Draft Board; physically fit and likely to be drafted sometime in the next eight months. On December 16, it was officially announced that Presley would be receiving his draft notice. While fans around the country were upset by the news, parents and teachers' groups were ecstatic; they viewed Presley as a menace to society
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