Now, half a century on, the world is not what it was.

The King is dead, the odds of a tank war on the rolling hills of the Hesse region have sunk to nil and the Pentagon is asking why it still needs a massive military presence in the heart of Western Europe.

Presley's arrival in this sleepy town north of Frankfurt electrified the locals and served as only one of the most potent symbols of what American troops have brought to dozens of German towns since World War II.

"It was rock 'n' roll and the PX shops with American products and a whole new image for Friedberg -- very exciting," said deputy mayor Michael Keller.

But nearly all the 2,500 US troops in Friedberg, population 28,600, have now been deployed to Iraq, offering a taste of what is to hit dozens of similar towns if Washington pursues proposals to transfer the bulk of its 71,000 troops in Germany to new NATO states in eastern Europe.

The move is part of a strategic shift in the US military away from giant garrisons that operate like small cities and toward a network of smaller bases better equipped to respond to crises and the threat of terrorism.

Specialist teams have already begun scouting sites in Poland and brand-new NATO member states Romania and Bulgaria -- two of seven countries that just joined the alliance.

Keller said he had been told that all Friedberg's troops would be gone by 2007 or 2008, bound either for the United States, eastern Europe or a consolidated base in Germany.

"There is something being lost here and I don't mean just economically," he said.

Keller, who is a member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats and an opponent of the Iraq war, said he had bid an emotional farewell to the troops on behalf of the town when they left for Baghdad.

"I was probably the only city official in Germany to give a speech like that," he said, referring to the country's fierce opposition to the Iraq war.

Keller said the ties between the troops and Friedbergers had come to run deep with one-third of all marriages registered between local women and US soldiers, at least until the Iraq war.

Eleven men have since died there, the last on Christmas Eve, and Keller said the town suffered with their families.

He showed a plaque presented to him in thanks for the town's support affixed with a chunk of marble from Saddam Hussein's chief presidential palace in Baghdad.

Only about 100 soldiers are now left in Friedberg to roam the sprawling Ray Barracks where Elvis served, dance at the discos that rely on their business and eat American-style hamburgers at specialty diners.

On Friedberg's Elvis Presley Square, a 77-year-old retired locksmith who asked only to be identified as Josef said he remembers when the rocker would ride through town to report for duty.

"People would line up on the road and cheer -- especially the girls," he said.

Now, Friedberg is already feeling the pinch of the troops' absence.

"A good 30 percent of our business comes from American soldiers -- or did before they left for Iraq," said Carmen Janik, owner of the Central Studio nightclub. She said that "apart from the occasional brawl," the servicemen were welcome guests.

And Rafi Ahmad, a Pakistani taxi driver who has worked in Friedberg for nine years, said his business was down by half.

Josef, who was sent to the front for Hitler at the age of 16, said he feels for the troops deployed to the Gulf.

"The Americans had heaven on earth here," he said. "They're in hell now in Iraq."

Sergeant James Banks, a 29-year-old Californian who said he recently returned "home" to Friedberg after a nine-month tour in Baghdad, smiled when asked what he thinks of the town, ticking off the nightlife, the proximity to France and Austria and the high quality of life as his favorite aspects.

"It would be a real blow if we got sent to Poland," he said. "There's no place I'd rather be than here."

WAR.WIRE