When he was sent to Vietnam in 1969, Harold Martin assumed he was going to die and made no plans to return to America. 

“I was fully prepared to die in Vietnam. I wasn’t prepared to come back,” said the social sciences instructor in a recent interview. 

Martin was assigned to a light infantry unit in 1969. It was a shock for him, to come back to the U.S. in 1970. Martin knew the war had changed him and he wasn’t happy about it. 

“The best part of me really had died in Vietnam,” he said. The person he was after the war, was not whom he wanted to be. “I didn’t feel capable of joy,” he said.

What changed Martin’s life was when his first son was born. “I had no desire to live, until he was born,” Martin said. “I’m not motivated by money, but by students and being true to myself.” In this way, his life has never lacked for meaning or purpose.

Martin began teaching at PCC 10 years ago. Four years later, he noticed some of the veterans coming back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan needed help in a way that people didn’t help him when he first came back from Vietnam.

 He formed a veterans club at PCC six years ago with nine founding members. They started out small, selling candy bars in the Quad, according to original member Carol Calandra. “Now, they are a force to be reckoned with,” Calandra said. 

Calandra is a former student from Martin’s first “Boots to Books” class, a course designed to help veterans adjust to the civilian world. Now a colleague of Martin’s, she works closely with him acting as a liaison between Martin and the veterans. 

Calandra describes her first impression of Martin was that he is an odd duck, but admits that once she understood his sense of humor, her opinion changed. “At first I didn’t get it, but he is amazingly brilliant,” she said.

Lisa Castaneda, paralegal studies, is another former student of Martin. She describes him as “a tough cookie” and “old school.” Castaneda believes that Martin has influenced her in becoming a stronger student and has taught her to be aware of her surroundings.

Harold Martin was born in Munich, Germany. At the time, post-war Europe was in shambles. Countries were still recovering from ravaged economies and bombed-out cities. His mother feared another war was imminent and chose to emmigrate to the United States. 

After high school, Martin left America and reconnected with his family in Germany, and then began hitchhiking through Asia. He explored some of the tribal areas that are now considered to be among the most dangerous places in the world. 

Eventually he decided to go to college in India, but due to the primitive conditions he encountered on his travels, he contracted some major tropical diseases. He returned to the U.S. to heal and begin his higher education. However, in his first semester, he was drafted and sent to Vietnam.