After graduation from high school in 1950, he worked briefly in an automotive plant in Pontiac, Michigan, before returning home to enlist for four years in the U.S. Air Force on July 7, 1950. This was shortly after the Korean War began on June 24, with the sneak attack invasion of South Korea by Communist North Korea, which quickly involved American troops.
Airman Cash took basic training at Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas, where he met his future wife, Vivian Liberto, a local high school senior. Following training as a Morse code intercept operator, Cash was transferred to Landsberg Airbase, Bavaria, Germany, where he was assigned to the 6910th Security Group. His natural musical ability allowed him to excel in interpreting signals from the other side of the “Iron Curtain.”
It was while he was in Germany that he used his military pay to buy his first guitar at the base exchange, after which he taught himself to play. He started a band composed of fellow airmen, the Landsberg Barbarians, and he began writing songs for the group. One of his first efforts, “Hey Porter” was published as a poem in Stars and Stripes. His band played the local pubs, entertaining servicemen far from home.
Cash was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant on July 3, 1954.