"[6] He commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Coast Artillery in 1908, and reported to the remote Fort Flagler in Washington State, guarding the entrance to the Puget Sound.

[8] In 1916, they had a child, John R. Martin, who eventually became a colonel in the United States Air Force and shares a tombstone with his father in Arlington National Cemetery.

On that day, already separated from the rest of the planes after losing an engine and being stuck in the remote Alaskan village of Chignik, Martin struck a mountain on the Aleutian Peninsula in the fog.

While the Navy and Coast Guard searched, Major Martin and his mechanic Sergeant Harvey hiked down the mountain to a fishing cannery near Port Moller, Alaska.

In 1940, with American entry into World War II looking imminent, he was promoted to major general and assigned to command the Hawaiian Air Force.

They warned "in a dawn air attack there is a high probability that it could be delivered as a complete surprise in spite of any patrols we might be using and that it might find us in a condition of readiness under which pursuit would be slow to start.

"[13] Martin requested additional aircraft both in this report and in a follow-up through Army Air Corps channels a few months later, but what planes he did receive were ordered on to forward bases expected to bear the brunt of any fighting.

However, the presidential Roberts Commission determined that General Martin had done all he could to improve the islands' readiness, and he was sent to a larger command, Second Air Force, headquartered at Fort George Wright, Washington and responsible for bomber training and defense of the Pacific Northwest.