Hello doughefresh-ga,
From the many sources I consulted, it does not seem that Curtis
Mayfield ever was emlisted in military service. Let me explain why I
believe that to be true.
Mr Mayfield was born on June 3'd 1942. Curtis Mayfield was the lead in
his first group, the Alphatones, at the age of 14. One year later, a
friend from childhood, Jerry Butler invited him to write songs for the
Roosters, a quintet which later became the group the Impressions. In
1958, they recorded their first hit, "For Your Precious Love," After
the hit in 1958, Butler left to start a solo career. Mayfield, kept
the Impressions together, and continued to write and tour with Butler
before the Impressions got their first Top 20 hit in 1961, "Gypsy
Woman."
Between 1961 and 1971, he wrote a succession songs for his group,
including 'It's All Right, (1963), 'People Get Ready' (1965), 'We're A
Winner' (1968) and 'Choice Of Colours' (1969).
In 1970 Mayfield started solo career. He soon had a hit with the
song Superfly, and from then on he alternated political funk and
soundtracks. He also continued to produce some Impressions records,
and reunited with them on occasion.
On August 14, 1990, he became paralyzed from the neck down when a
lighting rig fell on top of him at a concert in Brooklyn, NY.
From that description of his busy career with dates, the release dates
of his discography, and the fact that the 10 biographies I review had
no mention of any military service, I am led to believe that he did
not serve any time in a branch of the military.
You may review biographies here:
http://curtismayfield.cjb.net/
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Curtis%20Mayfield.html
http://www.warr.org/mayfield.html
http://www.africana.com/research/encarta/tt_252.asp
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/mayfield_curtis/bio.jhtml
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Respect2.html
http://personal.eunet.fi/pp/vilenvi/Curtisdisco.html
http://www.bingsoldskool.com/mayfield.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Mayfield
http://www.mtv.com/bands/az/mayfield_curtis/bio.jhtml
I can also find no reference to military service with a search for:
"curtis mayfield" military
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=%22Curtis+Mayfield%22+military&btnG=Search
If this answer requires further explanation, please request
clarification before rating it, and I'll be happy to look into this
further.
Nenna-GA
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