stripes but only drawing the pay of a spe- cialist fourth class with less than two year’s service. Except for seeing him wearing staff sergeant stripes in one of his movies, that is where I left him. But I believe it took a long time for Elvis’s pre- sence to leave Germany. One of the last army posts to be decommissioned by the U.S. Army in Europe was Ray Barracks at Friedberg. Could it be the fact that be- cause Elvis had served most of his time in the army at Ray Barracks, its reputa- tion became a major factor in why it re- mained so long as a U.S. Army base in Germany?
My next recollection of Elvis came many years later well after I had retired and was spending my time writing for publication. In 2012 I had been trying to get the now U.S. Army publication Armor to publish a
couple of historical articles but was get- ting little response from the magazine’s editor. Numerous inquiries went unan- swered or put off until for some reason, I mentioned to the editor that I had ser- ved with, or he had served with me, Elvis Presley. That did the trick. Evidently the editor’s mother was a great Elvis fan and so I sent her a copy of the photo of Elvis which appeared in the battalion’s 1960 yearbook. Not one but two of my histor- ical articles appeared soon after in the magazine.
If my recollection of the “army” Elvis end- ed with the publication of my manuscripts, the connection of the military with his civilian career did not. In my formal retire- ment mess night, for entertainment my active duty operations sergeant major
came up with a great idea, or at least we all thought it was. Actually it wasn’t his but his wife’s. Yes, she was an ardent Elvis fan and why not have him, or rather an Elvis impresario, perform for me and all the guests. We all sat tall and proud in our dress blues as a reincarnated Elvis performed at his best. He lived.
Which brings me back to Elvis at the No- voselich poolside party. It turns out there was no real Colonel Novoselich connec- tion. Indeed, we had no “60’s” background music and no one paid any attention, as far as I could see, to his pseudo presence. But for me, as a long ago tank command- er in my cupola about to command “fire”, the surfboard Elvis “triggered” memora- ble recollections of a great former armor trooper.
Spring 2026 CAVALRY & ARMOR JOURNAL
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