Charles Martin was born in August 1922 in Nebraska. He had one brother that died when he was an infant. His father was a chauffeur for a doctor who made house calls. His mother worked for Montgomery Ward [Annotator’s Note: a mail-order business and department store]. They did not have a lot of stuff [Annotator's Note: referring to the Great Depression; a global economic depression that lasted through the 1930s]. They rode bikes all over. Martin did not have dates in high school. He graduated in 1941. They had township schools. He delivered papers on his bicycle. He would go to the movies with the money he made. He was working at a service station on a Sunday when he heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He decided to enlist.

Charles Martin did not want to be drafted into the Army. He tried to enlist in the Air Force cadet school. He passed the test, but then found out he was colorblind. He went to Indianapolis [Annotator’s Note: Indianapolis, Indiana] to join the Marines. He did basic training in San Diego [Annotator’s Note: San Diego, California]. This was the first time he had ever ridden on a train. They got on a troop train in Kansas City [Annotator’s Note: Kansas City, Missouri] and arrived in San Diego in November [Annotator’s Note: 1942]. They learned drills and how to take their rifles apart and put them back together. They learned how to shoot in different positions at the rifle range. Martin got a pin for marksmanship. They learned to drive amphibious tractors [Annotator's Note: Landing Vehicle, Tracked or LVT; also referred to as amtrack or alligator]. They would go into the ocean and hit the waves. They had combat conditioning. Then they got into the amphibious tanks with a 7mm cannon.

Charles Martin was at Camp Pendleton [Annotator’s Note: in Oceanside, California] when they formed the 1st Amphibious Tank Battalion [Annotator’s Note: 1st Amphibian Tractor Battalion, 1st Marine Division]. They were the first ones on shore. When they first went overseas, they were on LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. It was rough riding. Their tank got a hole punched in it. They went to Hawaii. They got sliced pineapples. Then they hit the Marshall Islands, and across the equator, their base camp was on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. They had tents with wooden floors. They trained with their tanks. Martin was assigned as a driver in his tank. They hit Guam [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Guam, 21 July to 10 August 1944; Guam, Mariana Islands] and the amphibious tanks had difficulty navigating the coral around the island. Some of the tanks got on shore and hit mines. The Japanese hid mines on the beach. They had to dig foxholes and line the area with wires. They were able to drive around the bridge. The water level was high. The Navy was bombarding the island. After that, they returned to their base camp at Guadalcanal.

Charles Martin remembers that the new tanks had 75 mm howitzers on them. Martin and a friend learned how to swim through riptides on Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. They trained for weeks before they were assigned another operation [Annotator’s Note: following the Battle of Guam, 21 July to 10 August 1944]. They found out that they were going to Okinawa [Annotator’s Note: the Battle of Okinawa, code named Operation Iceberg; 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan]. All the beaches had been bombarded. They hit the beach and they did not face any resistance. They came across an abandoned Japanese airfield. They went through a valley until they could not go any further. When Martin was on top of the tank, a sniper hit him in the knee. He was taken back to transport and was put on a naval hospital ship. When he got shot, the bullet went through his knee and up into his thigh. They fastened the bullet to his wrist for a souvenir. A kamikaze [Annotator's Note: Japanese suicide bomber] hit the hospital ship. The ship took them to a field hospital in Guam. While he was at the field hospital, Admiral Nimitz [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Sr., Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet] gave him his Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: an award bestowed upon a service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy]. [Annotator’s Note: Martin shows the interviewer some of his personal effects.] He was sent to a hospital in Honolulu [Annotator’s Note: Honolulu, Hawaii]. Some guys would get maggots in their casts. Next, he went to Millington, a naval hospital outside of Memphis, Tennessee. They helped him get his leg function back. Back then the bars could not serve mixed drinks in Memphis. Martin was coming out of a movie when he heard that the Japanese had surrendered [Annotator’s Note: 15 August 1945].

Charles Martin was at the hospital when the Japanese surrendered [Annotator’s Note: 15 August 1945]. He found out that they could get out of the service based on points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. He found out that he had enough points to get discharged. He did not want to stay in. His leg was not fully healed [Annotator’s Note: after being injured during the Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg; 1 April to 22 June 1945; Okinawa, Japan] when he was discharged. He was on 50 percent disability. He did not use the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment]. He learned to be a machinist. He retired in July 1986. He was a private first class when he was discharged. Martin went to mechanics school after boot camp. After the war, he got married. He has one daughter and two granddaughters. [Annotator’s Note: Martin talks about his family life.]