Page 52 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2018- Online Magazine

Herschel Martin One Man - Three
Herschel Martin was honored
to go on the 2013 South Plains
Honor Flight not just to see
the museums and monuments,
but to “visit with my fellow
veterans.”
erschel Martin received
his “greetings from the
HU.S. Government” in
the summer of 1945. Drafted
into the Army, he completed
eight weeks of basic training
at Ft. Sam Houston in San
Antonio, Texas, a training
post during WWII, from 1939
to 1945. After basic training,
Herschel’s outfit was sent to
a “repo depot” (replacement
troops) in Baltimore, Maryland.
He said it was “crowded with
G.I.s waiting to go overseas”.
Heading out of Ft. Dix, New
Jersey, Herschel thought they
were headed to Europe. “The
52 Lubbock Senior Link
Branches of Service
by Larry A. Williams
Army never told After his unit arrived in the
us where we were Philippines, Martin was
going.” To their assigned to the motor pool.
surprise, they wound He noted that “a POW camp
up going through the joined us there, and I was
Panama Canal, then in charge of five prisoners.
on to California. The I couldn’t understand
outfit then headed for them, and they couldn’t
the South Pacific on understand me. We each
a converted supply had a translation book, so we
ship. After a stop in could communicate.” When
Hawaii, they were he told one of his prisoners
bound for Japan, that he was from Lubbock,
aimed at being part of Texas, the young man shouted,
the planned invasion “Cowboy!” He added that “the
of the Japanese prisoners were treated better
mainland. Waiting than we were.” While “some
to go into Japan, the of the men were rough on the
bombs were dropped prisoners, I treated them like
(on Hiroshima human beings.” Herschel left
and Nagasaki). the Philippines in March 1947
Herschel’s outfit and shipped back to the states,
was then rerouted where he was discharged. He
to the Philippines as met Earlene Bloodworth while
part of the Army of attending Calvary Baptist
Occupation. Church, and they married
on September 19, 1947. The
Herschel Martin was couple had three sons and one
born near Lorenzo, daughter.
Texas on December 31,
1927. He was one of
ten children, five girls
and five boys, born to
Ira and Selena Martin.
After graduating from
Lubbock High in 1945
at age seventeen, he had joined
the Merchant Marines. The U.S.
Merchant Marines provided
the greatest sealift in history
for fighting forces around the
world during WWII. Herschel
spent time on a trawler as an
engine mechanic on the coast
of California. A union strike
in Seattle grounded the ship
he was on, and he left the
Merchant Marines. He took a
train back to Lubbock, but as
soon as he got home, his draft
notice was waiting for him.
Herschel became a soldier.