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World War II Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient
First Lieutenant Harry Linn Martin, U.S. Marine Corps
First Lieutenant Harry Linn Martin was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the cost of his life, on Iwo Jima, 26 March 1945.
Lieutenant Martin was the son of Stella May Linn Martin and Ralph Ray Martin, a car repairman. A member of the Ohio National Guard, he was graduated from Bucyrus High School and from Michigan State College at East Lansing, Michigan, where he majored in Business Administration. At State, he was on the football and wrestling teams and did some boxing and skiing. He was a member of Sigma Alpha Fraternity and served two years in the Cavalry unit of the ROTC. Following graduation in 1936, he worked in Honolulu, Hawaii, as an office manager for the Hawaiian Construction Tunnel Company.
On 25 August 1943, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve. Following schooling at Quantico, Virginia, Lieutenant Martin completed the Engineers School at New River, North Carolina, and was designated an Engineer Officer, 13 March 1944. Assigned to 2d Battalion, 16th Marines, engineer regiment of the 5th Marine Division, he joined Company C when the designation of the battalion was changed to 5th Pioneer Battalion.
Lieutenant Martin went overseas with his unit in the summer of 1944 and went into training at Hawaii. On 19 February 1945 - D Day - he landed on Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands and before the day ended he had already sustained a slight wound.
A few minutes before dawn on the morning of 16 March, the day the Iwo Campaign officially closed, the Japanese launched a concentrated attack and penetrated the Marine lines in the area where Lieutenant Martin's platoon was bivouacked. He immediately organized a firing line among the men in the foxholes closest to his own, and temporarily stopped the headlong rush of the enemy. Several of his men were lying wounded in positions overrun by the enemy and the lieutenant was determined to rescue them. In the action which followed, he was severely wounded twice but continued to resist the enemy until he fell mortally wounded by a grenade. He died ten days later.
The Medal of Honor and citation were presented to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Martin of Route 2, Bucyrus, Ohio, by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal at a ceremony in the Navy Department on 6 May 1946. He was also survived by one brother and one sister.
Lieutenant Martin was promoted to first lieutenant on March first, twenty-five days before his death. He was buried in the 5th Division Cemetery at Iwo Jima. At the request of his mother, Lieutenant Martin's remains were returned to Ohio in 1948 for private burial in Oakwood Cemetery, Bucyrus, Ohio.
CITATION: Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Born: 4 January 1911, Bucyrus, Ohio. Appointed from. Ohio. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as platoon leader attached to Company C, 5th Pioneer Battalion, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 26 March 1945. With his sector of the 5th Pioneer Battalion bivouac area penetrated by a concentrated enemy attack launched a few minutes before dawn, 1st Lt. Martin instantly organized a firing line with the marines nearest his foxhole and succeeded in checking momentarily the headlong rush of the Japanese. Determined to rescue several of his men trapped in positions overrun by the enemy, he defied intense hostile fire to work his way through the Japanese to the surrounded marines. Although sustaining 2 severe wounds, he blasted the Japanese who attempted to intercept him, located his beleaguered men and directed them to their own lines. When 4 of the infiltrating enemy took possession of an abandoned machinegun pit and subjected his sector to a barrage of hand grenades, 1st Lt. Martin, alone and armed only with a pistol, boldly charged the hostile position and killed all of its occupants. Realizing that his few remaining comrades could not repulse another organized attack, he called to his men to follow and then charged into the midst of the strong enemy force, firing his weapon and scattering them until he fell, mortally wounded by a grenade. By his outstanding valor, indomitable fighting spirit and tenacious determination in the face of overwhelming odds, 1st Lt. Martin permanently disrupted a coordinated Japanese attack and prevented a greater loss of life in his own and adjacent platoons. His inspiring leadership and unswerving devotion to duty reflect the highest credit upon himself and the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.
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