In honor of Veteran's Day 2022, I would like to Thank all Veterans and especially the Veterans who have served from our family. This Veteran's Day, I will highlight a Korean War Veteran in the family - Charles W. Martin. The photos and letters in this post belonged to his mother, Maymie Martin, and were found in her photo box.
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| Charles Wilbur "Chuck" Martin Korean War |
C. W. Martin was drafted into the Army in 1950. He was sent to basic training at Fort Ord. Fort Ord was a United States Army post in Monterey, California. According to wikipedia, Fort Ord was a staging area for units departing for the war in the Korean War.
After basic training and before shipping out for Korea, Wilbur's parents, Elmer and Maymie, made a visit to Wilbur at Fort Ord during Christmas time 1950.
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| Wilbur and his dad, Elmer Martin. Christmas 1950 Fort Ord, CA |
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| Maymie and son, Wilbur Christmas 1950 Fort Ord, CA |
After his parents left to drive back home to Yuma, Arizona, Wilbur sent a post card to them. There are several things I want to point out on the postcard. First, he put his brand "/H" on the top of the back of the card. Secondly, he signed the card as "Chuck", which is a nickname for Charles. Although I remember him occasionally being called Chuck, I mainly remember him as Wilbur. Since horses were always Wilbur's first love, he asked his parents how the horses were when they arrived back home🐎🐴.
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| Postcard to parents, 28 Dec 1950 |
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| Perhaps before shipping out |
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| Wilbur in Korea. |
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| Wilbur was a camp cook for a while. (colorized) |
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| Letter written to parents from Korea. 23 July 1951 200 yards south of 38th parallel line |
The following is a photo of 1947 Korean money that Wilbur sent his parents. Both the front and back are shown. A notation is made on the back - "Korea - Chorwon". Not sure if Chorwon is where Wilbur obtained the money or if it is the location of the image on the money.
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4 comments:
Great post! I knew Wilbur when he owned the M&M truck stop.
I like this post because I love to study about war. My uncle was an Apache helicopter pilot in Korea. -MM
Wilbur raced horses 🐎 at Prescott back in the 1960s.
Respect that he served in war. Would have been cool to have heard some of his stories. Bet they were interesting.
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