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thedrifter
01-30-07, 08:28 AM
MERITORIOUS MARINE
Bloomington man rewarded for helping man, boy injured in auto accident
January 30, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY TIM DELANEY - VICTORIA ADVOCATE

Marine Cpl. Ray Martinez, in his camouflage desert-utility uniform, bent over the man on the hot road. The sun beat down on them in the arid air as blood gushed out of the man's head, tincturing the immediate area a bright sanguine.

"I open up his eyelids," Martinez said.

The injured man's eyes stared straight into what seemed like nothing, not focusing on Martinez or anything.

"His eyes were fixed."

Martinez quickly took off his camo-shirt jacket and wadded it up. Then he used it as a compress against the man's head wound.

"He looked like he was all right - no other wounds. But he looked like he was on his last breath," Martinez said.

"I pried open his mouth, and as soon as I opened his mouth, he took a gurgled breath. I knew I was helping."

Nearby, a little boy wailed, wept and watched, his eyes moving from Martinez to the man lying on the road. And blood was flowing from the boy's nose.

The 24-year-old Martinez took off his undershirt and wiped the blood from the boy's face.

Then help came.

Three weeks later in Yuma, Ariz., Martinez, who is from Bloomington, and two fellow Marines stood in front of a complement of 200 Marines to receive the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, a medal awarded for meritorious service or achievement in either combat or non-combat.

In Martinez's case, it was non-combat. The meritorious service took place on Interstate 8, the highway between Yuma and Oceanside, Calif. - about a 200-mile stretch of highway.

The time was 4 o'clock when the three Marines had pulled out of Yuma, Ariz. that mid-September morning on their way to Camp Pendleton to drop off a Humvee at the military automotive shop to be checked out for corrosion and wear.

Martinez is part of the Combat Logistics Company 16 of the U.S. Marines based in Yuma.

"We are supposed to go about 45 mph, but I said, 'Step it up, or we will never get there.' We wanted to get back to the base by 4:30 in the afternoon."

The drive took three-and-a-half hours. "And when we are in the Humvee, we have to wear the Kevlar helmet and heavy flak jacket."

The three Marines dropped off the Humvee and crowded into the single cab of the Chevy pickup that had followed them up.

"We all fit in the truck like sardines."

Then it was time for some lunch.

"We picked up some tacos, and pulled over and ate pretty fast. We drank horchata (rice water and cinnamon) - a couple of those."

Ray says it was about 1:30 p.m. when they went through San Diego.

"We were cruising along. He pulled over a couple of times to use the restroom. We traded places because it was so crowded. Sometimes we would be in the middle, and that was the worst."

This part of the highway in California was sided by rock faces, and huge boulders lay in the medians.

"I was sitting by the passenger window ... We were dozing, and I looked up at the road," Martinez said. He turned his head to look across the median just before his view would be blocked by a huge boulder.

"I glanced over to the northbound lanes and saw a truck airborne. It was a Ford Expedition. I told the driver, 'I saw a real bad car crash. We got to go back. Maybe we can help.'"

A dirt path across the median was up ahead, and they crossed there to get on the northbound lanes.

"We pulled up and I told the driver to put the flashers on."

Martinez found a group of people standing by but not doing anything.

The little boy who sat by the road apparently had a broken nose. The boy looked to be 4 or 5 years old. The driver of the car, "looked to be in his 30s" and was still in the vehicle hanging by his seatbelts.

The boy said they were by themselves; no one else was in the car. This was good because the back was crushed and no one could have survived the impact, Martinez said.

Someone managed to get the man out and onto the road. That's when Martinez began in earnest to help the man, who kept trying to go to sleep.

"I started shaking the man. 'Wake up, George. I got your little boy here.' He'd wake up. I did that three or four times. He was coughing in his own blood. I turned him on his side, so blood would come out of his mouth. I told him an ambulance would be there shortly. I told him his boy was OK."

What Martinez didn't know was that one of those bystanders was a Marine captain. She was attached to the logistics regiment that Martinez's unit was part of.

She asked Ray and the others who they were.

"She may have identified herself to my buddies, but I wasn't present when she did, do I didn't know who she was."

"I borrowed an undershirt and we went on our way back to Yuma."

"Got back to the shop and we were asked why we were late. We told them there was an accident and that we stopped to help."

"Yeah, right. Sure you did," was the reply.

Then word spread around that the three Marines were going to get a medal for their deeds.

"They only give them out when you do something outstanding - above and beyond the call of duty. We were presented the award about three weeks later."

Martinez, a graduate of Stroman High School, said he would have helped anybody in need of aid. He said his actions were not something extraordinary.

"But any little bit anybody can do to help a situation means something. Luckily, that day it was just enough to keep that guy from dying. There was a lot of people out there and blood everywhere. I just knew I had to do something."

Martinez said the last he heard the man and child were OK.

Martinez is proud of being a Marine. In fact, on Feb. 18 he re-enlisted for another four years.

"Many people see the war from the outside, and they see the war as terrible. But my job ultimately is going to war. I will go out and do what I'm supposed to do. I'll go with my friends. I look forward to it," he said.

And he remembers well what a bystander said when he and his two fellow Marines arrived at the scene of that California accident: "All right! The Marines are here."

Tim Delaney is the Advocate Web editor. Contact him at 361-580-6313 or tdelaney@vicad.com, or comment on this story at www.VictoriaAdvocate.com.

Ellie