After a successful sojourn, my tour in Europe was coming to an end. My new assignment took me to Fort Hood, Texas, where my new boss, the adjutant general of Fort Hood, appointed me postmaster. The operation of all the post offices on this sprawling military base was to be my bailiwick. As luck would have it, the most famous young person in the world at the time was assigned to Fort Hood, resulting in an avalanche of letters, postcards, and even photographs autographed in lipstick to "the coolest cat in Texas." With this national adoration, every postmaster in the U.S. knew where to dump his dead letter mail: to Fort Hood, forwarded to Pvt. Elvis Presley, USA. My cries for help initially resulted in 10 new men and finally graduated to 60 total "sack draggers" to unload the many boxcars loaded with mailbags. This problem continued with no immediate solution in sight.
展开▼
