Meryl Kerkhoff fought for almost nine months of his two years of military service on the battlefield in South Korea. He remarked that he never prayed so hard in his life as when he was there and described the fact that he came home alive as being "one lucky man."

Meryl was born on January 17, 1929, to Alphons and Frances (Bluml) Kerkhoff and grew up near Templeton, Iowa. He spent all his school days at Sacred Heart Elementary and Sacred Heart High School graduating in 1946. Meryl's memories of World War II include that the junior and senior boys were allowed to miss classes for three weeks in the fall to help pick corn. They got full credit for the classes they missed.