2:16 | While serving at a processing station in Memphis, Tennessee, Neil Barnhart talks about the unique experience he had of inducting Elvis Presley into the Army on March 24, 1958.
Keywords : Arkansas National Guard Elvis Presley Memphis Vietnam induction Tennessee
While trained to be a combat engineer, Neil Barnhart had to fill in as a machine gunner on tanks venturing into North Korea in 1951. Upon receiving surprise mortar fire from Chinese forces, he protected his assistant from a nearby blast, but Barnhart himself took shrapnel damage for which he earned a Purple Heart.
In September of 1951, "all hell broke loose" as Neil Barnhart's patrol base in North Korea was attacked by a Chinese regiment. Barnhart recalls the experience of picking up the body of his friend, Elbert Morgan, who had been killed by a mortar, and the sight of dead Chinese soldiers for miles in the aftermath of the battle.