Johnny Cash enlisted in the United States Air Force on July 7, 1950. After basic training at Lackland Air Force Base and technical training at Brooks Air Force Base (both in San Antonio, TX), he was assigned to be a Morse Code Intercept Operator at Landsberg Air Base near Penzig, Germany. Cash was the first radio operator to pick up the news of the death of Joseph Stalin.
While at Landsberg, J.C. started his first band, The Landsberg Barbarians. After Cash was honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant on July 3, 1954, he returned to Texas.

