Martin joined the U.S. Army in 1942. The United States had already entered World War II. He was sent to Camp Toccoa, Georgia, to join the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, where he trained for months to become a new kind of soldier: a paratrooper. His next assignment was England, where he and the 101st were preparing for Operation Overlord.

In the early morning hours of D-Day, "Pee Wee" -- nicknamed for his smaller stature -- dropped into France and helped secure two bridges, a move that cut off the Germans' ability to move reinforcements to the Normandy beachheads. June 5, his unit had departed for battle and parachuted down behind enemy lines in France. “We jumped into Normandy before all the beach forces came in,” Martin said. “Our mission was to knock out all utilities and to kill any enemy we found, which we did.” Martin was just 19 years old, a teenager, jumping into World War II. From there, he jumped into occupied Holland during Operation Market Garden, where paratroopers attempted to cut off the Netherlands from German forces by securing every bridge into the country as the rest of the Allies moved in from the south. Market Garden did not go as planned, but Martin survived and was with the 506th in Belgium during the last major German offensive of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge. Like the rest of the 101st, he found himself surrounded, cut off and under siege at Bastogne. As a "Toccoa Original" and one of the "Battered Bastards of Bastogne". He recently worked with songwriter Karen Waldrup to create the song "Normandy.." "Courtesy of military.com- A Military History"