By Brenda Erdahl
It was the summer before Tom Coon’s senior year in high school when he walked into the army recruitment office in Hopkins and joined the military.
“Paratrooper school, that’s how they got me,” he joked. “They asked if I wanted to jump out of airplanes. I said, okay!”
That “okay” led to a 23-year career in the military, 13 ½ as active-duty army and nine in the reserves. He’s been sent overseas three times, including once as leader of a personal security detail for the top ranking general in Iraq, General David Petraeus.