Tom Meli's service in West Berlin was part of the early years of the Cold War between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. There was constant tension between American and Soviet troops during these early years of the Cold War. Tom Meli's commander told the troops there was not much to worry about because if the Russians ever attacked, they didn't have a chance because of the vast difference in the amount of troops on each side. The Russians had upwards of 200,000 troops to the Americans 25,000 troops. Tom Meli said " We really never worried about getting attacked, so we would just enjoy ourselves and we played a lot of baseball."