On March 24th, 1958, 23 year-old Elvis Presley reported for his induction into the army.  It was a day that the press and his fans dubbed as being Black Monday.  Shortly after being inducted, Elvis and his fellow recruits were transported to Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.  That’s where my grandfather, Raymond Ellis, took this picture.

Unfortunately, the copy above is not a great scan.  (When my Dad got his first scanner in 1995, the Elvis picture was one of the first things he scanned.  I just happened to come across it a few weeks ago while I was gong through some old 3.5 floppy disks.)  Hopefully, I’ll be able to get my hands on the original and share a better scan in the future.  As far as I know, this picture of Elvis has never been published anywhere else.

As for Elvis, he served in the army for two years, getting promoted to sergeant and receiving an honorable discharge in 1960.   He spent most of his army career in West Germany, where he met the woman that he would eventually marry, Priscilla Beaulieu.