Since today is the anniversary of the landings on Okinawa, this is apt.
They paid for this: Red Beach 2, Tarawa, 20 november, 1943...
John,
Your blog name is how I feel today. Here’s why.
Carl William Martin was born in March 1926 in Cumberland, Maryland. When we entered World War II, his father was given a choice: join the service or relocate to Pittsburgh (alone) to continue his work in the steel mills as an essential war industry; he relocated to stay close to his family of small children.
Carl, the oldest child, waited until his 17th birthday and then took his father’s place. He joined the Navy but was sent to boot camp at Parris Island and assigned to the Marine Corps' Second Assault Amphibian Battalion. The "Second Amphibian Tractor Battalion" was an organic unit of the 2nd Marine Division, composed of a Headquarters and Service Company and three letter companies, all equipped with the Landing Vehicle Tracked-1 (LVT-1). In 1942, the Battalion set sail from San Diego, CA with the First Marine Division and participated in assaults on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian and Okinawa. Carl was seriously wounded, but stayed with it until the Battalion was deactivated in November 1945 and he was discharged.
Carl came home, married his sweetheart, Margaret, and started a heating oil business. He was a bright guy and invented some controls for heating units that were patented and sold worldwide. He and his skills remained in high demand from businesses and residence owners for the rest of his life.
In 2001, Margaret contracted Alzheimer’s and quickly became totally uncommunicative. Carl moved her to a nursing home. For the next five years, until Margaret passed away, Carl went to the nursing home every single day, seven days a week and 52 weeks out of the year, to have lunch with Margaret and talk to her. He left her voice on the answering machine for his heating oil business, so whenever we called we heard her first. He would let her entire greeting play before he would pick up the phone.
Two years almost to the day after Margaret died, Carl passed away last Friday in Cumberland. He paid his dues to the nation and to his wife and family. Now he is back with Margaret in heaven – and probably wishing that he had gone to hell so that he could handle the heating controls down there. But in spite of his experience in the Pacific, he didn’t qualify for deployment to that hot spot.
Rest in Peace, Carl. I have lost a really great pal.
Jack
The sheepdogs walk among us all our lives, and we never notice them, until we need them. A whole generation of them are slipping by us now, even as you read this.
...so we could have this - Red Beach 2, Tarawa, today.
Fair winds and a following sea, sailor.
Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance: In Memoriam, for Carl Martin, US Navy, WWII, a friend of a friend of the Castle.
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