Cesar Romero and Elvis Presley
A lot of people know Elvis served as a common draftee after being offered a skate job entertaining the troops and so on. He refused, opting to serve as a common soldier and rose to the rank of sergeant inside of his two years service which speaks highly of him.
The other is Cesar Romero.
Romero joined the Coast Guard and refused OCS, preferring to just be one of the guys. He gained an earned reputation as one hell of a good crane operator and during the invasion of the Marianas donated blood to wounded Marines.
When asked why he didn't accept a commission he replied, "I just wanna be one of the guys." He also lived on his Coast Guard pay which wasn't much. I can picture a big shot movie star asking a bunkmate to loan him two bucks until payday.
He rose to Chief Bosun's Mate during his hitch.
I like guys like that.
Romero later said he thought the wartime Coast Guard duty he served would be a lot harder than it was.
Coasties were part of the Navy during wartime.
As for Elvis? During my hitch one of the senior NCOs served in a unit close to where Elvis was barracked and laughed like hell about it when he told me.
According to him, Elvis was generous to his fellow GIs. He'd bring a fellow GI or three along when he went out on pass, often leaving in a limo.
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