PMC Town Hall • Condor Room • Friday, July 10 • 7 p.m. • Free

By Patric Hedlund

At age 22, Sergeant First Class Clayo Monroe Martin was called “Pops” by the 18-year-old soldiers who served under him in Korea. He had experience with combat. Martin joined the U.S. Merchant Marine at age 17, serving in World War II (in which 418,500 Americans were killed). Five years later he was drafted into the U.S. Army’s 32nd Infantry and sent “to be shot at in Korea” in 30 degrees below zero weather. About 18,000 U.S. soldiers still serve on the DMZ border between North and South Korea, he said, where 36,581 U.S. soldiers were killed and almost 200,000 were wounded.

“For what?” Martin says he still sometimes asks. He won the Bronze Star for valor.

Martin came home to work for 38 years with Union Oil, and says he is grateful for his service and his life after. Still, he worries about news that 22,000 U.S. veterans end their own lives each year.

Filmmaker Julian Wilson is merging his love of history with his love of film to honor America’s war veterans in a series of films still in production.

The second film completed in the series will be presented in a free screening this Friday at 7 p.m. at the Pine Mountain Town Hall in the Condor Room. Everyone is welcome; open to all Mountain Community residents. Dinner is available at the clubhouse restaurant in advance.

Mel Weinstein assisted with this report.

Photo captions:

Clayo ‘Bob’ Monroe Martin with his wife at an earlier screening at the Frazier Park Library. Now, by popular demand, they are back for a free Town Hall screening, open to all at the Pine Mountain Condor Room, 7 p.m. Friday, July 10.

(L-R) Filmmaker Julian Wilson honors veterans in his film series; VFW’s Wilford Bummer was moved by Clayo Martin’s memories.

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This is part of the July 10, 2015 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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