Atomic Express

It’s Elvis Presley’s birthday today, had he lived another 35 years. How many other stars at the height of their fame dropped everything to serve on the front lines of freedom during the Cold War? Inducted into the US Army, Elvis served in West Germany with a tank battalion from 1958 to 1960 and was in US Army reserve until 1964. (that is, he could have been called up for, say, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, if the Cuban Missile Crisis weny hot in 1962 or any other Cold War confrontation that bubbled up). Some maintain that Elvis was deployed as a cultural weapon to bolster West German morale and counter the combined effects of the East German Jazz and the Red Army Choir….

Happy Birthday to the King!

(Thank yuh very muhch!)