Presley spent most of his early military career training at Fort Hood, Texas where he was later assigned to Company A of the Third Armored Division’s 1st Medium Tank Battalion. On September 22nd, 1958, he was shipped out to Friedberg, West Germany where he was assigned to Company D of the Third Armored Division’s 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32nd Armor as a jeep driver. He would spend the rest of his service overseas. On March 5th, 1960, Presley was honorably discharged from active duty with the rank of sergeant. At a press conference, he said, “People were expecting me to mess up, to goof up in one way or another. They thought I couldn’t take it and so forth, and I was determined to go to any limits to prove otherwise. Not only to the people wondering, but to myself.” VIEW ORIGINAL
MCALESTER ARMY AMMUNITION PLANT, Okla. – A telecommunications maintenance specialist currently working at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant (MCAAP) enlisted in the U.S. Army before Elvis Presley even received his draft notification letter.
The Warner Bros.’ 2022 summer hit movie, "Elvis," directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Austin Butler and Tom Hanks, has brought attention to Elvis Presley’s two-year stint in the U.S. Army to younger generations of Americans.
Presley received his draft letter while at home with his parents for Christmas in Memphis, Dec. 20, 1957. He successfully petitioned for a deferment so he could complete the movie, "King Creole." He was sworn into the U.S. Army on March 24, 1958.
Presley was proud of his Army service. In fact, his first movie released after his discharge was "G.I. Blues," in which he played the role of Army Specialist 5 Tulsa McLean, a tank crewman with a side gig as a nightclub singer. Paramount Pictures even shot some pre-production footage on location in Germany, where Presley was stationed before his Army release.
MCAAP’s Jim Morris joined the Army, completed basic training, and jumped out of airplanes before Elvis even received his draft notice – 65 years ago.
Morris’s Army service isn’t as well-known as Elvis’s. Believe it or not, Jim never made a movie or had gold record — but he’s okay with that.
Now 85, Morris, whose family roots are in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma, between the towns of Krebs and Alderson, was born during a brief lull in the Dust Bowl in 1937.
"When I was growing up, my father took work wherever he could find it,” said Morris. “He worked as a welder in a shipyard in California during World War II; on a ranch in Cheyenne, Wyoming; and then helped build oil rigs in Oklahoma and Texas.”
Jim graduated from McAlester High School in 1955, but soon moved to the town of Odessa, Texas, where his father had recently found work. West Texas was not only producing oil, but it was producing aspiring young musicians like Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison, who were following Elvis into the evolving genre of rock and roll.
Not Morris.
Morris said that he’s "a little on the quiet side" and that he’s always liked to be busy putting things together, like his father did. “I didn’t really follow what was going on with rock and roll either,” said Morris.
In 1957, during this height of the Eisenhower Era, the 20-year-old Morris set out from Odessa for a ‘3-year hitch’ in the Army, and headed to Fort Carson, Colorado, for his first eight weeks of basic training.
“I stood 5 feet, 8 inches tall, and weighed 147 pounds before I started ’basic,’” said Morris. “I weighed the same when I finished – but the weight shifted from my butt to my shoulders.”
Morris said he underwent ‘jump school’ and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he began working in weapons maintenance and repair. "We were not given the option to request a particular occupational field – this was during the draft, so they put us where they saw fit," he said.
Morris was soon transferred to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, which had been reactivated and reorganized in response to the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons – with five battle groups that included regiments and battalions.
“I served as the maintenance NCO for our battle group; and repaired and replaced weapons until my enlistment was up,” said Morris. After being honorably discharged in 1960, Morris took his time looking for a place to settle down. “After I got out of the Army, I traveled around working, kind of like my father did,” said Morris.
After a pitstop in Phoenix, Arizona, Morris said that he wound up in Oklahoma again, working for Western Electric, on stored program control (SPC) telephone exchange systems in the mid-1960s.
But with the chance to work even closer to his family, Morris took a job at the then-U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot (USNAD) McAlester, on a bomb production line. That was 55 years ago, in 1967 – the same year Elvis married Pricilla.
“Once I started working at the depot, I was able to move around to positions that better suited my skillset,” said Morris. He spent time working in the depot’s electrical and telephone shops.
“Around that time, I volunteered for temporary assignments to other installations with critical needs for a telecommunications maintenance specialist,” said Morris. “I was able to work at places like Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Naval Facility (NAVFAC) Adak, Alaska; and Camp Zama, Japan.
Naval Ammunition Depot, McAlester, was officially transferred to the Army and its name was changed to McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in 1977. That was 45 years ago – the year Elvis died.
Since then, Morris has continued working here at MCAAP – through all the advancements of telecommunications technology.
Jim might not be a global icon like Elvis, but one thing is certain – he’s not afraid to work; and he’s at home at McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, where he knows he’s supporting young Soldiers.
MCAAP manufactures, houses, and manages conventional ammunition and its individual components. The plant is also responsible for stockpiles of war reserve and training munitions. It is one of 18 installations within the U.S. Army’s Joint Munitions Command (JMC).
JMC’s mission is to support our joint warfighters globally, “with ready, reliable, and lethal ammunition, at the speed of war.”
“MCAAP is a good place to work,” Morris said. “If you take of business, it’ll take care of you.”
Morris received a 55-year length of service plaque from MCAAP Commander, Col. Mike Hammond, during the Joint Munition Command’s virtual Command and Staff meeting, Oct. 24.
Morris said he’s not ready to retire any time soon – he doesn’t have any reason to do so.
He might not be Elvis, but he’s definitely a living legend – he's a ‘Soldier for Life’... and he's still weighs 147 pounds.
Social Sharing