March 24, 1958 at 6:35am, Elvis, accompanied by his parents, family and friends, reports to the Memphis Draft Board. From there, Elvis and twelve other recruits were bussed to Kennedy Veterans Memorial Hospital. There, Elvis is assigned army serial number 53 310 761, and after his physical is put in charge of the group. After being processed and sworn in, Private Presley was posted to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas

October 5, 1960 West Germany
Elvis assigned to the Third Armoured Division

General Colin Powell on Elvis Presley the soldier

General Colin Powell was recently interviewed for BBC Radio were he reflected on Elvis the solder...
"He was just another soldier, he wasn't Elvis Presley, well that's not right, he was Elvis Presley but at the same time they assigned him in accordance with the needs of the service and unlike others who have gone in the military from celebrity life and essentially used their talents to entertain troops, he was a scout and he didn't ask for anything special ... he didn't ask for any special favours..."
 
"When it came time to go to the field Elvis Presley was a scout, not a celebrity and, of course, he was still the King of Rock 'n' Roll but he was a good soldier and I think his fellow soldiers respected him for his dedication ... "
 

"Elvis Presley was a scout and he was in the Third Armoured Division, which was part of the Fifth United States Corps, which I interestingly, subsequently commanded 28 years later and it occupied the shallowest part of NATO battle front ... Elvis' unit and my unit were in that division and we had the toughest job and it was a time of heightened tension and we were in a cold war"

Elvis Presley at Ray Barracks, Germany, October 1958

Colin Powell recalls... "When I met him, he was out in the field just as dirty and tired as the rest of us from doing his job and he was recognised for his professional performance. The only thing that surprised Colin Powell when he met Elvis was his height.

"We were in this wooded area north of Frankfurt and I was driving along in my Jeep and somebody noted that, there he was. When I got out of my Jeep and walked over to him he saluted and was very proper and what struck me was that he looked just like another GI... He was shorter than I expected other than the fact that he was really Elvis Presley, he acted, and I saw him, as just another soldier, in the woods, doing a job"