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KF5JRV > TODAY 20.12.18 13:40l 45 Lines 2281 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 27367_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Dec 20
Path: IZ3LSV<IK6ZDE<VE2PKT<N3HYM<W4BFB<KA9QJT<KE0GB<KF5JRV
Sent: 181220/1236Z 27367@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.17
On this day in 1957, while spending the Christmas holidays at Graceland,
his newly purchased Tennessee mansion, rock-and-roll star Elvis Presley
receives his draft notice for the United States Army.
With a suggestive style–one writer called him “Elvis the Pelvisö–a hit
movie, Love Me Tender, and a string of gold records including
“Heartbreak Hotel,ö “Blue Suede Shoes,ö “Hound Dogö and “Don’t Be
Cruel,ö Presley had become a national icon, and the world’s first bona
fide rock-and-roll star, by the end of 1956. As the Beatles’ John Lennon
once famously remarked: “Before Elvis, there was nothing.ö The following
year, at the peak of his career, Presley received his draft notice for a
two-year stint in the army. Fans sent tens of thousands of letters to
the army asking for him to be spared, but Elvis would have none of it.
He received one deferment–during which he finished working on his movie
King Creole–before being sworn in as an army private in Memphis on March
24, 1958.
After six months of basic training–including an emergency leave to see
his beloved mother, Gladys, before she died in August 1958–Presley
sailed to Europe on the USS General Randall. For the next 18 months, he
served in Company D, 32nd Tank Battalion, 3rd Armor Corps in Friedberg,
Germany, where he attained the rank of sergeant. For the rest of his
service, he shared an off-base residence with his father, grandmother
and some Memphis friends. After working during the day, Presley returned
home at night to host frequent parties and impromptu jam sessions. At
one of these, an army buddy of Presley’s introduced him to 14-year-old
Priscilla Beaulieu, whom Elvis would marry some years later. Meanwhile,
Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, continued to release singles
recorded before his departure, keeping the money rolling in and his most
famous client fresh in the public’s mind. Widely praised for not seeking
to avoid the draft or serve domestically, Presley was seen as a model
for all young Americans. After he got his polio shot from an army doctor
on national TV, vaccine rates among the American population shot from 2
percent to 85 percent by the time of his discharge on March 2, 1960.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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