Upon being drafted, Elvis Presley entered the United States Army in spring of 1958 and served until spring of 1960, receiving his discharge from the Army Reserve in 1964. At the time of his draft, he was the most well-known entertainer in the Armed Forces. And despite being offered a safer, more plum role in the Secret Services, Elvis chose to serve as a regular soldier.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n During his active military career, Elvis served in Germany for around 18 months as a member of the 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 32d Armor.<\/span> When he was discharged, he returned to Hollywood and began making a series of films to build on his post-service popularity not just among youth audiences, but also among older adults. In fact, it may be his military service that helped him earn the adoration of a more adult audience.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n However, Elvis isn\u2019t the only famed musician to serve their country. Let\u2019s look at eight other musicians you might be surprised to learn served their country in the United States Armed Forces.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n The blues giant whose parents gave him the name of Chester Arthur Burnett (1910\u20131976) served in the US Army during World War II. He enlisted in 1941 and was stationed at Fort Custer in Michigan and Fort McClellan in Alabama, working as a radio operator and supporting troops overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After his discharge in 1943, Howlin\u2019 Wolf returned to the South and dove headfirst into the blues, pouring all the fire and fury of \u201cSmokestack Lightning\u201d into his music. His voice was raw, thunderous, and unmistakable\u2014when Howlin\u2019 Wolf sang, you felt it in your bones. With tracks like \u201cKilling Floor,\u201d he didn\u2019t just play the blues, he embodied it, becoming a towering figure who paved the way for rock \u2018n\u2019 roll. His influence stretched far beyond the Delta, inspiring legends like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Wolf wasn\u2019t just a performer; he was a force that reshaped the sound of American music. Harry Belafonte (1927-2023) was a Jamaican American singer, actor, and civil rights activist who is known as the \u201cKing of Calypso.\u201d At the age of 17 he enlisted in the US Navy toward the end of World War II, where he served 18 months between 1944 and 1945 at Port Chicago near San Francisco. During this time, the military was segregated and Black service members were not typically fighting on the front lines, which is why Belafonte was assigned to load military ships headed to the South Pacific. He witnessed the aftermath of a massive explosion<\/a> that took place at the port, killing about 320 people, the majority of which were Black sailors. As an act of protest against the unsafe and segregated work conditions, Black sailors refused to load ammunition onto the ships in what became known as the Port Chicago Mutiny; 50 were convicted and sentenced to prison. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know at the time. Nor could we know that the political reverberations of the Port Chicago disaster would help lead to desegregation of all the armed forces in 1948,\u201d said Belafonte in his 2011 memoir. After the war, Belafonte used the GI Bill to study acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York. To help pay for his classes, he started singing at jazz night clubs, backed by legendary performers including Charlie Parker, Max Roach, and Miles Davis. His music and acting career took off from there. The racial inequalities that Belafonte saw and experienced during his time in the military and in the entertainment industry inspired his work as a civil rights activist, where he was a close confidant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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