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Contact Info
Home Town Savannah
Last Address Coronado, California
Date of Passing Dec 23, 2014
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Following his Navy retirement Admiral Martin accepted a position with the Zerox Coporation as Director of European Business Development. After two years in that position Admiral Martin returned to Coronado, California and worked in the private investment sector. He served on a number of corporate, educational, and civic boards. He was also a frequent guest lecturer, media commentator and military news analyst. Admiral Martin retired and lived the good life, along with his wife the former Sharon Handly.
Profile Sponsors Note: 27 Jan 2015:
It is with regrets today that I learned of Admiral Martin s passing on 12-23-2014 in San Diego. I will always recall foldly my contacts with the Admiral. He was a fine gentleman indeed.
Hand...........SALUTE!
AW1 Carl Mottern USN-RET
Other Comments:
Profile Sponsors Note:
It has been my extreem pleasure to research material for this profile of Vice Admiral Edward Martin. I first came in roundabout contact with Admiral Martin in the Spring of 1977, when he was CO of the Oiler USS CANISTEO (AO-99). After my HS-15 helo dropped mail to CANISTEO, Captain Martin had 10 gallons of ice cream sent up the hoist in mail bags. He then radioed my helicopter that the treat was "For ROTORHEADS ONLY, AND I MEAN ROTORHEADS!". His deep Georgia drawll was unmistakable. The ice cream gift may seem like a small gesture, but put in perspective it was a rare and much appreciated token of his appreciation from a receiving ship, sent from this decorated fellow Naval Aviator, to us less glamorous helo types. We got back to AMERICA, called all our workshops and had everyone who wished show up in the ready room with a cup and spoon for an ice cream snack and a brief break. I never forgot that nice gesture.
The next day when AMERICA pulled alongside CANISTEO for refueling an announcement was made that this was THE first time two former POW's had Captained the two ships in a refueling operation. AMERICAs' CO at the time was the much respected Captain R. "Byron" Fuller, a POW from July 67 to March 73, having been captured only a few days after Captain Martin. Both of course went on to serve as Admirals, with Admiral Martin becoming Commander of the 6th Fleet.
Years later a writing project about Admiral Fuller for the USS AMERICA Carrier Veterans Association led me to contact Admiral Martin for his recollections on Admiral Fuller. He could not have been more pleased to help, and contributed accurate info on thier much interwined and parallell careers. It was true pleasure to speak to both of these fine gentlemen. They are in my opinion both great Americans, under who'm I was proud to have served.
Please enjoy this profile on Vice Admiral Martin. If you may spot any mistakes or have better information for correction or photo contributions, please by all means feel free to contact me. I am particularly interested in Admiral Martins service with VA-34 while on INTREPID prior to his shoot down and capture, and any memories from his time as CO of both CANISTEO and SARATOGA.
Regards,
AW1 Carl Mottern USNR-RET
The White Buffalo
Chain of Command Captain James Stockdale was Senior Ranking Officer.
Other Memories More of Edward Martins' story can be found on pages 271, 272, 273, and 281 of Benjamin Schemmer's "THE RAID" by Avon. It states:
One of the Hanoi Hilton's last new guests as the Son Tay roundup continued was Navy Commander Edward R. Martin. Shot down on July 9, 1967, while leading a strike against Ninh Binh, he spent the first year of his incarceration in solitary. After months of that he was near death. He lived on one thought: "Six months from now, I'm going 'home." Every six months, he'd convince himself anew. it was his way of holding onto sanity while they worked him over in the Zoo, finally throwing him into a cell 78 inches long and 60 inches wide with four other men, sleeping on concrete, two of his cellmates in irons, unable to urinate, never getting a shower, not knowing how long they'd be there.
About 2:30 A.M. on November 21, Ed Martin, from his cell in the Zoo, saw the flares over, explosions around, and surface-to-air missiles flying above Son Tay. Instinctively, he knew what was up.
As SAMs arched into the sky almost due west of his prison cell, Martin watched them explode harmlessly only 19 miles away; they were detonating everywhere from 2,000 to 18,000 feet above the terrain. He had seen lots of SAMs-at much closer range. One had finally nailed his F-4 on July 9, 1967.On the morning of November 2 1, however, Martin realized that not one SAM had hit its target; he knew all too well what the explosion looked like when an SA-2 slammed into a plane in mid-air. He broke into tears. He knew that Son Tay was empty; but that didn't really matter, he told himself. America cared. He had his best night's sleep in three years.
Thirty-six days later, Martin found himself in a native paradise; he was moved into the Hanoi Hilton the day after Christmas, 1970. In a large room with him were 19 other POWs. Some were old Navy friends, some men he had heard being tortured in the Zoo but had never been able to talk to. One of them was Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James H. Kastler, a hero well before he was shot down on August 8, 1966. He broke both legs on bailout and came to be held in virtual awe by his fellow prisoners. Taken to the Zoo, with Martin in a cell only 25 feet away, Kastler was put "on the ropes" one night and worked over unmercifully by a sadistic expert known only as "the Cuban." He was handcuffed, blindfolded, and beaten 700 times with a fan belt-100 strokes a day for seven days. Blindfolded, he couldn't anticipate the blows. There was no way of knowing when to tense up, when to relax; all he could do was wait. Each time he fell mercifully unconscious, the Cuban waited until Kastler came to and then started over.
Finally, Kastler said, "I surrender, I submit." Guards brought pencil and paper so he could sign his "confession." But when they told him to write, Kastler replied calmly, "I've changed my mind." His torture started all over again.
Ed Martin listened to it all. He would say of the Cuban, seven years later,"I'd pay $5,000 right now to find out who that bastard is."
Jim Kastler's fate in North Vietnamese hands wasn't made any easier by a Time magazine story about him that hit the newsstands just before his capture. It told of an F-105 pilot who'd become a legend among disgruntled airmen fighting an air war under "rules of engagement" imposed by Washington that made it almost impossible to hit a meaningful target, and which had turned the skies over North Vietnam into a duck-shooting gallery. But, Time noted, Major James Kastler somehow always got his target. No one knew how he did it. A week later he was shot down on a strike south of Hanoi. It wasn't long before Hanoi got its copy of Time and the Nort h Vietnamese knew they'd nailed a big one. They kept him in solitary for years, determined to break him. Thanks to Son Tay, Jim Kastler finally got a roommate in the Hanoi Hilton.
Another of Martin's cellmates in the Hanoi Hilton was Captain Bill Lawrence, the Constellation attack wing commander and former aide whom Tom Moorer had heard shot down on June 28, 1967, a few weeks before he became Chief of Naval Operations. Martin saw Bill Lawrence go down; he was leading a strike right behind him. Two weeks later, Martin himself got smoked. Wounded when his plane was hit and beaten to a pulp later, Martin soon became very, very ill. He thought he, was going to die. He used the tap code to seek help. Lawrence was the man he contacted. Lawrence told him not to give up. When he didn't hear from Martin, Lawrence tapped out a message asking for Martin's help. It forced Martin to "get it together" and not give up. Thanks to Son Tay, Martin and Lawrence finished their "Program" in North Vietnam together.
