Nuclear Town USA

by David Nell

  By the time we arrived back at the hotel, we had a message waiting for us at the lobby. It was from the Colonel, the note simply said, "Windy Van Hooten's."

  PS: Who was Windy Van Hooten?

  Jimmy: That's what I asked the Major. He simply smiled and said it was an old circus term, which basically means everyone gets what they hoped and wished for. Parker was in, Elvis was ours. History was waiting for us.

  We stopped there for the day. Jimmy looked tired and where he was at in his story, it felt like a natural place to pause. As I left the hospital, a lot of things were going through my mind. Here I was getting a story that if written five years earlier, would have been front news everywhere. Elvis Presley, Nazis, genetic testing, government payouts, it had it all. Sadly, today's world is not that place.

  At the present, we are living in a world that has been overrun with a biological hurricane that has those infected with this strange disease eating and destroying everything in their paths. I knew just going to a hospital was raising the stakes for me to contract the affliction. But I also knew that I needed the work and being a military installation, I was left with a little more comfort that they wouldn't take any chances.

  With those thoughts swirling through my mind, I went straight to my hotel room, locked the door and tried to get some sleep in a room that felt like a sticky locker room.

  Day 2: A bump in the night

  I arrive at the Moncrieff Army Community Hospital around 10. The lobby of the hospital is all a flutter. It appears that early in the morning, another city had been overrun with the plague everyone is calling The Winchester Virus. This time it was Atlanta.

  Twenty-two cities in 19 weeks had succumbed to destruction at the hands of the infected people and the military that was tasked with trying to contain them. If a city appeared to be beyond saving, the United Nations along with the World Health Organization had determined to level it. To avoid nuclear fallout, they started using Thermobaric Bombs, conventional weapons developed by the Russians whose payloads are nearly as effective as atomic weapons without the residual radiation.

  Seeing the twenty-second city, the largest one since Philadelphia, taken out created a new stirring of fear and panic. Atlanta being only a little more than 200 miles away, is close enough to get myself a little concerned and I have decided to get the rest of this story and get home as soon as possible.

  Walking into the room, Jimmy is up watching TV. He too looks to be consumed by the latest news.

  Jimmy: Terrible...Fucking terrible. If we had known then what we know now...Fuck.

  PS: You okay Jimmy?

  Jimmy: I'm still dying...inside and out. No, I am not fucking all right.

  I gave him a few minutes before I asked him to continue. He decided he wanted to discuss Atlanta.

  Jimmy: How many cities now? Twenty-one...twenty-two...what's the global count?

  PS: The last I heard, officially 74, but that's not counting villages and small towns that aren't on the maps. It seems to be everywhere and no one seems to know what to do.

  Jimmy: Fucking tragic.

  It was here that Jimmy looking at the muted images on the television, somberly recited the Bible, a passage from the Book of Revelation. His words at that the moment, were more haunting than any report I had heard since the outbreaks had begun.

  Jimmy: And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.

  The tone in the room became dark and bleak. Part of me wanted to give the guy a few more minutes to decompress, but I also knew that I wanted to get this story and get going, as the Hurricane Winchester could hit at anytime.

  PS: So yesterday you had finished with Colonel Parker and Major Neville agreeing on Elvis being the first official candidate. My question starting off: when did Elvis start receiving the injections?

  Jimmy: Elvis reported to duty on October 1, 1958. I met him as part of the welcoming committee along with Captain John Mawn, who helped supervise Elvis at any official army meetings. When he first arrived he was really out of it. Charlie Hodge, who later became a member of the Memphis Mafia, had bunked with Elvis on his journey across the Atlantic and did his best to keep him in good spirits. I personally don't think anything would have cheered him up, as his mother had just passed away less than a month before he arrived. The kid was still very much grieving.

  I thought that we should give him a few days to get acquainted with his new home. I felt it would be best to get Elvis settled in and semi-comfortable before starting.* The Colonel and Major both thought differently. They both agreed we should take advantage of the situation, and to bring him in right away.

  *Due to Elvis Presley's unique celebrity and conditions arranged by his manager Colonel Tom Parker, the army had him live in separate quarters just off the base with his father Vernon and his grandmother Minnie May in the town of Bad Nauheim.

  PS: What was your first real encounter, impression with Elvis like?

  Jimmy: When I first met E, I had gone to his house off-base to pick him up for what we had told him was the first series of inoculations to reduce any chance of him picking up any remnant German illnesses left over from the war.

  I went by myself as we felt it might be good for me to bond with the guy. I was a bit nervous since the first time I had met him I was part of a delegation of sorts and felt no real pressure -- as I knew there would be little chance for me to have to make conversation with the man. But the night before this meeting I was like a child on Christmas Eve, I was going to sit and spend time alone with one of the biggest stars in the United States, with the slight chance to become friends.

  PS: Friends, even though you knew he was an unwilling participate in your experiment?

  Jimmy: Hell yes friends. You have to remember, up to that point I had no reason to believe he was in any mortal danger. In fact I felt like I was helping him. `

  PS: I guess that makes sense...

  I got one of those looks from Jimmy like I had received the day before. He was slightly annoyed by my question as well as my response and with the stiff stare I got from him, I knew not to press my luck.

  PS: So what was he like?

  Jimmy: The man was a genuine gentleman. When I arrived at his house, it was Vernon who met me at the door. He was welcoming but not too warm. Elvis on the other hand had just been finishing his breakfast and was in the kitchen with his grandmother Minnie Mae, both were great examples of southern hospitality. Elvis got up and introduced himself and his family, and then he did his best to get me to sit down and have some biscuits and gravy with them. Here the guy was a huge star, and he made me feel like I was the special one. Even though I had eaten some chow at the mess hall, I felt like I could not say no. I tell you what, I am glad I didn't too. Being in Germany so long, I had forgotten how much I had missed a home-cooked meal.

  After we finished our breakfast, we made our way back to the base. Elvis was a little quiet at first, as I think the idea of being in the army had finally settled in. I wasn't put off or worried that I may have offended him. I realized that he was taking it all in and doing his best to process it all. I just left him be.

  PS: Could you tell me more about your relationship during the early phases of Project Methuselah?

  Jimmy: Well, we became sort of friends right away. We had started talking more and I let him know I was from Aiken and was a southern boy raised in similar circumstances. We both loved Gospel music and a good cheeseburger. He made it very easy to like him. The man had seemingly everything and always felt like he wanted to share it. It was at this time though that Charlie Hodge had started questioning my motives.

  PS: What do you mean?

  Jimmy: I was with Elvis quite a bit; but I was not part of their division, nor was I a field officer. I couldn't tell if he thought I was attracted to Elvis's fame or if he was suspicious of Elvis always having to visit the infirmary. I h
onestly don't think the man ever trusted me – even later on in our mafia days.

  Charlie asked me a number of times why Elvis had to go with me for the inoculations, when none of the other troops seemed to need it. At first, I thought he may have thought that Elvis was getting out of duty by sitting in some warm, cozy doctor's office. But the reality was the man genuinely cared about him and wanted to make sure no one was taking advantage of him, especially since he was still grieving over his mother.

  PS: What did Elvis make of all the trips, shots and blood work?

  Jimmy: Actually, he was pretty cool about it all. I think that the fear of contracting any kind of illness outweighed the inconvenience of any shots and testing. He knew he was valuable property, and was fairly sure that the U.S. Army did not want to be the ones who let America's biggest star get sick, or worse. The only thing he would complain to me about was that I wasn't as pretty as most nurses.

  PS: Did He ever meet Major Neville and Dr. Häussermann?

  Jimmy: He did and became familiar with them both. They were a part of the process from his first visit. I may have been his contact point and monitor, but they still were very close at every step. They were friendly to the man, but made sure that they set me up as his confidant through all this, so they could remain pretty clinical and subjective.

  It was Dr. Häussermann who sat him down and fabricated the stories of secret Nazi germ testing that went unaccounted for after the Allies had invaded Berlin. He spun such fantastic yarns about local farm animals mutating, babies born without limbs, and people dying mysteriously overnight that Elvis could not wait to get the shots. It was Major Neville who confirmed Elvis's thoughts that the army was doing everything they could to protect its most valuable soldier.

  PS: What were the Major's and Häussermann opinions of the man?

  Jimmy: I think they liked him. He was so damn charismatic. He had a contagious way of drawing you in. I believe they, like myself, thought we were doing something great for a pretty nice guy who deserved it.

  They tried to keep it straight, not be affected by his celebrity, but it was pretty hard at times. Especially early on, they did things normal doctors would never do.

  PS: Like what?

  Jimmy: Drugs. E had been complaining that he had a hard time sleeping, so they started giving him pills that would help him sleep. He then comes back and says he's now having a hard time staying awake, so they started issuing him pills for that, too. Never once asking what the real problem was, or stopping to think that any of the gene therapy was having an affect on his system. They just wanted to keep him happy. We all did.

  PS: So what about the experiment? Were you seeing any results?

  Jimmy: At first, no. Much like with the chimps, there was no activity that would indicate any change in Elvis' cellular decay. For months, it was business as usual. Each week, I would pick him up, draw blood and Dr. Häussermann would administer the new dose of what he and Major Neville were now simply calling: Endal, as in the end of aging man.

  Months turned into a year. It was during this year, Elvis and I became close friends. I was a regular at his place when off duty, and even went looking for girls in town with him, Charlie and a couple other GIs. I really liked the guy and felt like we could have been friends, regardless of the fact that we were forced together as a result of Methuselah.

  What this friendship did was create a bit of a conflict for me, as I did some things that I am not proud of. Remember me telling you about the pills? Well, being a corpsman, I had access to an entire pharmacy. And when Elvis started making requests for more medicine, I did all I could to accommodate.

  PS: Did anyone else from the project know about this?

  Jimmy: No. Elvis was my friend, I felt like part of me owed it to him to save him any embarrassment of what this kind of information could do. How was I suppose to know that I would be getting myself involved with a what looked like serious addiction as his lifelong enabler?

  Can I have a minute?

  I gave Jimmy the minute he asked for and left the room to grab a soda. I knew none of this was easy for him, reliving his part in a shady past that most Americans know led to Elvis Presley's early demise. I tried to put myself in his shoes and ask "what would I have done in the same situation with someone as charismatic as Elvis?"

  I came back five minutes later; James was ready to begin again.

  PS: Jimmy it felt like where you left off that you were about to say something significant. Can you continue where you left off?

  Jimmy: It had been a year, Elvis was still getting poked and prodded. He was okay with all of it as he thought he was being kept safe, and I was keeping him supplied with plenty of pills. Around Thanksgiving in '59, we saw our first indication that Endal was working.

  The boys in Elvis's unit decided to play a football game against the MPs and the gents from the Motor Pool. During the game, Elvis got hit pretty hard and when he went down, he banged his head on a tree root. Since he was prized army property, he had to go get checked out. It was as a result of this exam that we saw that his body was changing.

  PS: Changing? What kind of changes?

  Jimmy: Corpsman Romero was on duty that weekend. During the exam, Romero noticed what he thought were odd readings from Elvis. After he released E to go home, the corpsman had decided to make the call to me, as he knew I had been assigned to him, but did not know the details of what my role was entirely.

  First thing Romero had noticed was the unusually high oxygen readings in E's blood, and that his white count was also high, but did not appear to be behaving as though he was ill. But the strangest part that was described to me was the elasticity and the color of his skin. The swelling on his head that he had sustained, as a result of the game, was extremely mobile under the skin. When Romero went to touch the wound, the pressure from his fingers had forced the goose egg to move. Corpsman Romero said the movement was like pushing an air pocket underneath plastic. It had really freaked him out.

  As soon as I heard this, I raced down to the infirmary to verify Romero's results in person. The first thing I did, though, was play it off and erase any cause for suspicion. I let him know that I was the part of the army's insurance policy to Elvis's manager Tom Parker – that he would be well taken care of. That the weird blood work was a result of a new powdered Haitian vitamin regime that Major Neville had been administering to Presley to help combat depression. To make it feel normal, I stuck around for a while, smoked a couple of cigarettes with the guy, and talked about the need for more of the local girls to volunteer as nurses at the base. I then asked for the file and left. I conducted myself very calmly and causally as if nothing was out of the ordinary. As a result, Romero was never again suspicious about any of the readings.

  PS: How did Major Neville and Dr. Häussermann respond?

  Jimmy: I didn't go to the Doc or Major just yet. I needed to make sure what Corpsman Romero had seen was real, so I went to Elvis's house to see for myself if what he had documented was true.

  When I arrived at his home, Minnie Mae came to greet me. She had a grandmother's look of concern when she hugged me at the door. She thanked me for dropping by, as both she and Vernon were quite worried about Elvis because he had been behaving so strangely since he'd gotten home. They felt it was a result of him hitting his head from the football game.

  Minnie said that when Elvis came home from the infirmary, he had asked her for a raw steak. She had thought it was going to be used for the swelling on his head. But when she went into his bedroom to check on him, she got was what she called a God-fearing fright.

  What she described was not the typical behavior for Elvis, or any normal human being. When she went into the room, the lights were out, but she heard an uneasy shuffling sound that filled the room. Thinking there may have been a critter in the room, she turned on the lights. To her surprise, the noise was coming from her grandson. Elvis was facing the corner of the room and was bobbing his head up and down. He wouldn't respond to he
r efforts to get him to turn around, he just stood there. He stopped moving, but wouldn't turn. She rushed over to get him to turn and look at her, and noticed how pale his skin had gotten. But what really scared her was that the steak she thought he wanted for his head had been eaten off of and looked like the blood had been sucked dry out of it. She said Elvis was in a daze; his eyes were as large as saucers and had an empty look about them. Minnie Mae started hollering for Vernon, which must have set off Elvis, as he swiftly grabbed her by the arm – staring blankly at her, all while not letting her go.

  She started to cry as she told me this. Never had Elvis laid a hand on her or done anything that would cause her any harm. Apparently shortly after this happened, Vernon came to the room and got her free from his grip and remained with his son until he was able to get him back into bed. He was still in there with E when I arrived.

  PS: What did you see?