The Peter Guralnick books Last Train To Memphis and its sequel Careless Love are generally considered the best writing that exists on Elvis Presley. The beginning of Careless Love revolves around his experience in the army.

Guralnick describes that Elvis' manager, Colonel Parker, essentially forbade Elvis from being a showbiz star while in the army. This played a big role in how Elvis's army experience went - Elvis did no recording, no filming, no playing gigs (though he sang at a Christmas party at the barracks, and did get up on stage in Paris, impromptu, while on leave). There were press conferences in the first few weeks, and towards the end of Elvis's stay, and some phone interviews with DJs, but otherwise Elvis was a regular soldier at an army base who had to do the same boot camp as everyone else, and who seemingly got on well with the rest of his unit.

In the book Sergeant Presley written by Rex and Elisabeth Mansfield (Rex being one of Elvis's friends from the army, and Elisabeth being one of Elvis’s squeezes in Germany who gravitated to Rex when Elvis lost interest) with ghostwriters, Rex says of Elvis that:

Elvis really tried hard to be just one of the boys. He participated in every training class, every field trip, and marched alongside us for hours. Most of us usually watched him from the corners of our eyes. We were very skeptical and expected Elvis to ask for and receive extra attention and favors. But I can honestly say that from the very start, Elvis never asked for special treatment. He went through basic training just like the rest of us.

At first Elvis was stationed at Ray Kaserne and was designated jeep driver for the commanding officer of Company D, before being transferred to Company C, where his job was driving Reconnaissance Platoon Sergeant Ira Jones around; the army had deemed that Elvis was best put on manoeuvres where he would be largely out of sight of interested onlookers (1958-1960 not being a time where Elvis would havw been likely to see active combat). As a result of his experience with reconnaisance, Elvis apparently became quite proficient in reading maps and using compasses.

Colonel Parker had a few reasons for wanting Elvis to have a relatively normal army experience. Firstly, he rationalised that Elvis's record company had plenty of pre-existing product they could dole out while Elvis was in the army. Secondly, he was adamant that Elvis was in the army to be in the army. He made it clear that he'd refuse any requests to get Elvis to put in shiws for the troops or to be a public promotional face of the army, and used some contacts to make sure that this policy was not opposed by the army. As a result, Elvis was not really put in a position where he was dramatically different to the rest of the army recruits, though one suspects that, in having Elvis as a driver, the army was careful to make sure that he was around a superior officer for much of his time on base, and that he was carefully monitored.

In the wake of the then-recent death of his mother, Elvis in his personal life in Germany was starting to develop some of the narcissism and preference for yes-men that would ultimately define his later life. However, in the context of the army, Guralnick doesn't describe him as anything but polite to superiors and happy to obey orders. Guralnick describes him as a 'good soldier' who could tell good stories about Hollywood to his unit, and who 'gave as good as he got' when others made comments about him being a big Hollywood star - one of the guys. This is also the general vibe of Sergeant Presley.

However, after he went home for the day, Presley's wealth did mean he ended up being quite different to the rest of the recruits. Unlike many young recruits, Elvis was a rich man; he was given permission to bring along his 'dependants' to Germany, which included an entourage of his (recently widowed) father, his grandmother and some of his friends, Red and Lamar. This entourage was initially put up in a hotel and then in a fancy house, on Elvis’s dime, and provided a sort of home life for Elvis that he could go home to.

Germany was also where Elvis met a teenaged Priscilla Beaulieu (the putative daughter of a Captain in the US Army), who he'd later marry when she was old enough. Before he became enamoured with Priscilla, there was a stream of other teenaged girls who he'd invited into his life with parental permission (including Elisabeth Mansfield who co-wrote Sergeant Presley). However, it's unclear from Careless Love how much the army or his friends in his unit knew about Elvis's entourage's hijinks and the girls who he was making out with.

In summary, Elvis was not a normal soldier, and he certainly had access to experiences other soldiers did not. However Elvis didn’t seem particularly inclined to use his status as a pop star to get privileges within the army, and Elvis’s management and his commanding officers avoided Elvis being in situations where he’d be treated more as a pop star than a part of the army.