I am saddened to hear that my friend Jim “Pee Wee” Martin (G Company / 3rd Battalion / 506th PIR / 101st Airborne Division, D-Day, Operation Market Garden, The Battle of the Bulge) passed away yesterday September 11, 2022. Pee Wee was 101 years old and still attending events through this past summer. A true hero in every sense of the word and the nicest guy you could ever know. This is the last photo I have of him, sitting with my son watching a C-47 flyover and parachute drop earlier this year. Rest in peace, my friend.
A brief synopsis of Jim’s service history:
Jim ‘Pee Wee’ Martin parachuted into Normandy near Saint-Come-du-Mont behind Utah Beach at 12:30 a.m. on D-Day as a member of the 101st Airborne Division, known as the “Screaming Eagles,” one of the first American forces to land.
He later fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and he received a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and European African Middle Eastern Service Medal for his service. Martin earned the nickname “Pee Wee” by being the lightest paratrooper in his regiment. He and his unit were part of the British-led Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands and Germany, and was part of the 101st-led defense of Bastogne, Belgium, stopping the German army’s last-ditch attempt to split Allied forces in the Battle of the Bulge.
He also saw action in Germany, liberating a concentration camp and seizing Adolph Hitler’s Bavarian home, known as the Berghof, in April 1945.
Jim Martin Taken on his last trip to the top of Currahee.
Jim Pee Wee Martin
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Jim ‘Pee Wee’ Martin 2
Jim Pee Wee Martin 3
