Kathy Parker
“I am in awe of this gentleman.”
That is how Col. Blaine Jones introduced Col. John Robert Martin at the Adair Memorial Monday.
Martin graduated from West Point in 1974. Although he grew up in Kansas, his father graduated from Adair High School and many of his family members, Crittendens, Bostons and Taylors, still live in Mayes County.
In 2004, Martin retired from his aviator job in the Army, but he was recalled to work in the Kosovo and Bosnia reconstruction and later the Iraq reconstruction, where he assisted his classmate, Gen. David Petraeus.
Martin asked the World War II and Vietnam veterans present to stand. “I’ve got cousins in both camps,” Martin said. He acknowledged the parents of those serving in the armed forces.
“I have a 33-year-old son,” Martin said. “My wife and I tried to get him to go to West Point. For various reasons that didn’t happen. When Iraq began in 2001, I was very glad that I was going to war instead of my son.”
Martin said much of his decision to attend West Point was because of his Oklahoma heritage. His grandfather Martin served in World War I and is buried in the Adair Cemetery. He said he was impressed when Eddie Crittenden came home from Vietnam. Jim Boston had earned a Bronze Star in World War II.
“My mother’s family, the Sheltons, she had seven or eight uncles that served in World War II, and one of them went on to serve in Korea.”
Martin said he was also impressed and interested as a boy in the Dough Boy statue over John Edward DeLozier’s grave in the Adair Cemetery. DeLozier enlisted in 1917 when he was 20 years old. When he was 21, he volunteered for a mission in France and was killed by machine gun fire. That was 88 years ago.
“My definition of a hero has changed over the years,” Martin said. “I have a scrapbook with a picture of Mickey Mantle with an arrow drawn to it in my childish hand where I wrote ‘my hero.’ While I still love the Yankees and admire Mickey Mantle, he was not a hero.
“A hero is someone who, in the face of hostile action, knowingly does a feat of great bravery ... for his or her unit.”
Martin said other service members are patriots, but not heroes. “Only a few are heroes, but patriot fits them all,” Martin said.
Martin said he was last in Iraq in 2007 and last in Afghanistan in 2002. “I think we have essentially achieved our strategic goals in Iraq,” Martin said. “That’s not necessarily a victory. I suspect we need to be there for another five to 10 years to some degree.
“Peace in Iraq is not like being here. But the peace there now is mostly due to my West Point classmate, Gen. David Petraeus. Afghanistan is still unfolding and there will be an increase in troops and new strategy. There will be increased casualties before the tide is turned. It may be tougher to get success in Afghanistan.
“It will require acts of heroism, but don’t apply that term too broadly. The legacy of the war dead endures.”
