A cut above
When a reconnaissance tank broke down on the German border in 1952, Cpl. Thomas Eugene “Tom” Merkel was the one who went out to bring it back.
Assigned to the motor pool, his job was to keep the unit’s M24 Chaff ee light tanks and personnel carriers running.
“I was in the motor pool,” Merkel said. “When a tank went out, we went and got the tank and repaired it.”
That work, carried out during the early tense years of the Cold War, was one part of a life defi ned by service to his country, his community and the customers
who sat in his barber’s chair for more than 60 years.
Early years and enlistment Merkel was born in 1931 in Eureka, South Dakota.
Drafted at 21 during the Korean War, he completed basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and advanced training at Fort Hood, Texas, before being assigned to a reconnaissance unit.
Although the war was fought on the Korean Peninsula, many draftees were sent to Europe. The United States maintained a large presence in West Germany to deter Soviet aggression and reassure allies. Merkel was among those stationed there, part of the American forces guarding the border.