Title: Walter Francis Martin, Jr., oral history interview, January 1989

Identifier: OH0111   (https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/10946)

Description: Mr. Martin primarily provides background for his personal papers which are included in the Destroyer Escort Commanding Officers Collection. He relates his childhood memories of growing up in an Army family with a father who served with the 5th Cavalry in the Philippine insurrection and with General Pershing on the Mexican border. Concerning his own service, he discusses duty beginning in 1941 as a reserve intelligence officer operating initially in the New York area. Subsequent duty pertained to a trip to Ecuador, training in anti-submarine warfare, assignment to instructional duty in the South Pacific, encounters with the Japanese, the battle of Leyte Gulf and other Philippine engagements, the capture of Okinawa, and kamikaze experiences.