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Contact Info
Home Town Marlborough
Last Address Alexandria, VA
Date of Passing Jul 18, 1998
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Merle Landry Carey, 81, a retired Army colonel and Washington stockbroker, died of respiratory failure July 18, 1998 at Inova Alexandria Hospital, Alexandria, Virginia.
He retired from military service in 1963 after having served in the office of the Army's chief of research and development. His Army career included service as an artillery officer in Europe during World War II, occupation duty in Germany after the war, command of a tank battalion during the Korean War, a short tour in Vietnam in 1962, and an assignment as professor of military history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He attended the Command and General Staff College. His awards included a Silver Star and three Bronze Stars, and the Order of the Phoenix (Greece).
Colonel Carey was a resident of Alexandria, and he had lived in the Washington area since 1961. He was born in Marlboro, Massachusetts, and graduated from Boston College and the U.S. Military Academy in 1943.
After his Army retirement, he was a stockbroker with the firms of Alex Brown, Kidder, Peabody and PaineWebber. He retired in 1992. His wife, Sarah R. Carey, died in April. A son, Jonathan S. Carey, died in December 1996.
Survivors include a son, Charles R. Carey of Potomac; two brothers; two sisters; and three grandchildren.
Other Comments:
SILVER STAR
Headquarters, 3d Infantry Division, General Orders No. 5 (1946)
CITATION:: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Captain (Armor) Merle Landry Carey, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in connection with military operations against the enemy as Commanding Officer of a Company of the 12th Armored Division during World War II. His gallant actions and dedicated devotion to duty, without regard for his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself and the United States Army.
Deployment - West German Border Security Operations
From Month/Year
September / 1945
To Month/Year
September / 1991
Description The United States Army maintained a substantial and continuous military presence at the inner German border throughout the entire period from 1945 to after the end of the Cold War. Regular American soldiers manned the border from the end of the war until they were replaced in 1946 by the United States Constabulary, a lightly armed constabulary force responsible for border security. It was disbanded in 1952 after policing duties were transferred to the German authorities. In its place, two dedicated armoured cavalry regiments were assigned to provide a permanent border defence. The 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Nuremberg and the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Fulda– later replaced by the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment – were tasked with monitoring the border using observation posts, ground and air patrols, countering border intrusions and gathering intelligence on Warsaw Pact activities. Unlike their East German counterparts, U.S. soldiers did not stay for more than 30 days on the border, though they carried out regular patrols around the clock using foot and helicopter patrols. They also used a variety of technical measures such as ground surveillance radars to monitor Warsaw Pact troop movements across the border. A rapid reaction force was on constant duty further behind the border to provide backup in an emergency. The American presence on the border provoked political controversy in Germany. During the 1960s the state of Hesse refused to grant U.S. forces land rights to its observation points or allow them to install paved access roads, electricity or telephone lines. It took the view that since there was no legally recognised border, there was no legal reason for their military observation posts to be built along it. By the 1980s the American border presence had become the target of peace activists, who in 1984 blockaded the U.S. Observation Post Alpha with a human chain. The U.S. withdrew from the inner German border in 1991.
