Photo Gallery V. Army Life

ELVIS PRESLEY PHOTO MOSAIC
A Lifetime of Pictures
Part V: Army Life
Ref: www.life.com


Inductee Elvis March 24, 1958: Presley stands with a group of young men at an induction center in Memphis, raising their right hands as they are sworn into the United States Army. He is Private #53310761.	Elvis in School Presley in a classroom while in the Army.


Take It All Off Elvis gets a haircut from a U.S. Army barber at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas. .	Private Presley Elvis stands in line with other enlisted men and officers on a military base in Germany. He served with the 3rd Armored Division until March 2, 1960.


Mail Call! Elvis gets his first bundle of mail at the Friedberg U.S. Army base in Germany. He was renowned as a generous soldier, buying extra fatigues for everyone in his unit and donating his pay to charity.	Resting on an Army Cot .


Elvis, Ma And Pa Presley stands with his parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, while at home from Germany. Elvis had been granted emergency leave to see his mother, who was ailing from hepatitis; she died two days after his arrival, on Aug. 14, 1958.	Entertaining His Fellow Troops Elvis sports an Army winter cap and battle fatiques while playing guitar in his barracks. Presley was renowned as a generous soldier, buying extra fatigues for everyone in his unit and donating his pay to charity.

Elvis Meets the Press March 1960: Elvis speaks to reporters in Bad Nauheim, Germany, announcing his honorable discharge from the military and his impending return to the United States and his life as a superstar.


Sgt. Presley Heads Home March 2, 1960: U.S. Army Sergeant Presley waves from the hatch of an airplane as he prepares to depart for America, after finishing his 18-month stint in Germany. .	Elvis' Girlfriend Priscilla Says Goodbye Outside an airport terminal building, 15-year-old military brat Priscilla Beaulieu, whom Elvis met at a party while stationed in Germany, waves goodbye to her and future husband as he prepares to return to the United States.

Back Home Back on American soil, vet Presley holds his first post-military recording sessions less than a month later, and comes out with the hits "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" He also makes the movie GI Blues, in which he plays a soldier. Pictured: Presley on that film's set with some infant costars.

MEETING PRISCILLA IN GERMANY

He came in , turned on the radio , and then sat down on his bed . I hardly looked at him , petrified of what he might expect. I imagined him grabbing me , throwing me down on the bed , and making love to me .
“Why don’t you come over here and sit next to me?”I was reluctant, but he assured me that I had nothing to be afraid of.
“ I really like you Priscilla. You’re refreshing. It’s nice to talk to someone from back home . I miss that . It gets a little lonely here . “
I sat next to him , saying nothing , but I was touched by his vulnerable , boyish quality. He went on to say that our relationship was going to be important to him and that he needed me . It was October and he was scheduled to return to the States in six months. He knew a lot of girls , he said , and many had come to visit as I had , but I was the first girl whom he felt a real closeness .
I cuddled into his arms , certain he would not move too fast.He held me closely…
My heart went out to Elvis that night as he confided his problems and worries . He was a world-famous entertainer, a great star , and yet a terrible lonely man .
Again our visit seemed to end too soon.
He kissed me goodbye, my first real kiss .
I had never experienced such a mixture of affection and desire . I was speechless but closely tied to the reality of where I was-locked in his arms , my mouth against his . Aware of my response-and my youth-he broke away first , saying ,
“We have plenty of time, Little One.
She believes the homesick rock star saw her as a confidant who was wiser than her years. “Elvis would pour his heart out to me in every way in Germany: his fears, his hopes, the loss of his mother—which he never ever got over,” she said during a press conference at the Venice Film Festival in September. “And I was the person who really, really sat there to listen and to comfort him. That was really our connection.”
In Elvis and Me, Priscilla writes that they did engage in what she refers to as “intimate circumstances” throughout their seven year relationship, but did not have sexual intercourse until their wedding day in 1976 when she was 21. Priscilla swears that it was Elvis who didn’t want to have sex until they were man and wife. “People think that was the attraction, it was sex. Not at all,” she said during a press conference earlier this year at the Venice Film Festival. “I never had sex with him [when I was underage]. He was very kind, very soft, very loving. But he also respected the fact I was only 14-years-old.”
In her memoir, Priscilla says that Elvis was more nervous than she was to finally consummate their relationship. “After all, Elvis had protected me and saved me for so long,” she writes. “He was now understandably hesitant about fulfilling all his promises about how very good this moment was going to be.” While she had never been interested in waiting to have sex, she admits that it was worth the wait. “As old-fashioned as it might sound, we were now one,” she writes of their first time. “It was special. He made it special, like he did with anything he took pride in.”

ELVIS: THE EARLY ARMY YEARS

Poster | Web | 5" | Card | Thumbnail

click for full-screen collage

BACK TO

Copyrights on all of the above photos are held by respective owners