EDMOND, OK, USA U.S. Army PFC, COMPANY A, 2D BATTALION, 502D INFANTRY (TF BAGHDAD), FORT CAMPBELL, KY BAGHDAD, IRAQ 10/31/2005
I am the proud father of Private First Class David J Martin who was with the Air Assault 502 from the 101st Airborne out of Fort Campbell Kentucky. We lost David on October 31st, 2005 in Iraq due to an IED. David and his group had been out and found and detonated 4 of the bombs earlier in the day. The locals said they had information of another that was in the roadway that was left. David and a group of 3 others volunteered to go out after the one they were talking about. The IED exploded and David and his 3 brave friends lost their lives when it exploded.
David my hero was born on April Fools Day 1984 and died on Halloween of 2005 when he was 21 years old. My wife and I were asked by someone in the news during our time of grief how we felt about someone so young being stuck down so early in their life and we replied:
“David was an honor student in school, he played in a state final baseball tournament in Texas when he was 12, he played soccer and basketball, he worked when young to buy his car, he kayaked the Illinois river, he climbed 12,000 foot mountains in Colorado, and he served his country as the man he was. Not bad for a 21 year old kid who left college to serve his country.”
The picture artist Michael Reagan drew for us was from David on the peak of the mountain giving his usual thumbs up. I will never forget the picture Michael drew as I asked him to draw from the photo of David on the mountain which was unusual in the request. The reason was David, when leaving for Iraq said to his mother “if anything happens to me remember thumbs up, its blue skies all the way.”
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