In 1955, Rawls enlisted in the United States Army as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. He left the All-Americans three years later as a sergeant and rejoined the Pilgrim Travelers (then known as the Travelers). In 1958, while touring the South with the Travelers and Sam Cooke, Rawls was in a car crash. He was pronounced dead before arriving at the hospital, where he stayed in a coma for five and a half days. He spent a year recuperating and several months before his memory returned. He considered the crash a life-changing event.