The U.S. Army's War on the King

FREIBERG, Germany--The U.S. Army has already closed the Elvis A. Presley dining facility. And it's only the beginning.

The legacies of Presley's stay at Ray Barracks north of Frankfurt have suffered from the reduction in American forces in Europe: The Pentagon plans to pare the number of U.S. troops to 150,000 by 1995, compared with 321,000 stationed here in 1989.

Presley was in Company A of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Armored Division's 32nd Regiment. It's now Company A of the 4th Battalion of the 1st Armored Division's 67th Regiment.

And Elvis' old barber--one of the few presences left in Europe who remembers the King--is all shook up.

"Sure, I'm afraid," says Karl-Heinz Stein, the head haircutter at the base where Pvt. Presley spent his overseas Army hitch.

Stein insists that, as long as Ray Barracks survives, he will keep his shrine to Elvis, including the scissors and straight razor he used to maintain the Presley pompadour after his basic-training cut grew out.

With troop reductions in Europe, however, layoffs are expected among the civilians whose jobs depend on American soldiers.

Stein, 56, has cut hair here for 34 years and recalls the day the soft-spoken soldier shuffled into his shop in October 1958.

"After 10-15 minutes I was done," Stein said. "I showed him a mirror and said, `Is that OK? He said `Yeah, how much?' "

Elvis paid him a dollar for a 35-cent cut, Stein said.

Presley returned twice monthly for 17 months. He sat in the chair Stein still uses and read comic books, sometimes whooping with delight when he came to a good part, Stein said.

Soldiers who sit in Stein's chair say they don't feel the King's karma race through the barber's fingertips, although they are impressed.

"I think it's neat," said Lt. Col. Dan Robertson. "I told my wife, `Hey, Elvis' barber cut my hair.' "

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