By CINDY HORSWELL
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

CLEVELAND — Just before Christmas in 2005, Kelly Hines of Splendora waited pensively by the telephone for word when the casket carrying her 20-year-old son would arrive from Iraq.

But one of the first rings she answered was an anonymous caller who told her that her son, Robert Martinez, was "no hero" and "going to hell."

Those words and later the sound of a cane a man used to strike her son's casket during his funeral service have continued to reverberate in her head.

But on Wednesday, those sounds were replaced by the roar of F-16 fighter jets and Apache helicopters flying overhead as a brass plate was unveiled that named Cleveland's post office after her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Robert A. Martinez.

The aging brown brick building is a landmark for residents in this Liberty County town of 8,000 where Martinez graduated from high school in 2003 and was a star pitcher on the varsity baseball team.

This is the first "fallen hero" from the Iraq war to be paid such a tribute in the 32 counties of Southeast Texas, said Dave Lewin, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service.

Naming post offices after soldiers killed in Iraq is rare, authorities said. But another Texan, Marine Sgt. Byron W. Norwood, fatally shot by a sniper in 2004 and commended in President Bush's State of the Union address in 2005, has had his name put on of the post office in Pflugerville.

"It takes an act of Congress to name a post office," said U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, who took a year to push the Martinez proposal through Congress and get it signed by Bush.

"All 32 members of the Texas delegation signed off on it."

Poe's Web site displays photographs of Martinez and 15 other young soldiers from Poe's District 2 who lost their lives.

Though Poe has delivered speeches on the House floor in honor of each who died, he chose Martinez for this tribute as a soldier who "exemplifies the sacrifice of the American troops serving in Iraq."

"Martinez had wanted to be a Marine since he was 12," Poe said. "You can't enter the Marines until you're 18, but he did everything he could to join up. He pre-enlisted at age 17 and then went to boot camp two days after graduating from high school."

Martinez was serving his second tour of duty and was supposed to be going home for Christmas before his tour was extended. He died in an explosion of a roadside bomb near Fallujah on Dec. 1, 2005.

His mother said she had never expected such an honor for her son and wished all who had died could get the same tribute.

"I'm speechless," she said before the ceremony. "It's hard to believe that it is happening. I thought people had forgotten and moved on."

Despite "fringe groups" who insulted the bereaved family after Martinez died, Hines said the vast majority of Cleveland residents had shown an outpouring of support.

But she worried that as time passed, her son's short life would be forgotten.

To keep his memory fresh, she and her husband, Jeremy Hunt, have continuously worn Martinez's dog tags and a plastic bracelet with his name on it.

Hines still hears from members of her son's old regiment, the 7th Marine Regiment (2nd Battalion). Several members recently telephoned from their base at Twentynine Palms, Calif., to express regret that they could not be present for the unveiling because they were being deployed again to Iraq.

However, two recently discharged Marines who had served with Martinez flew in for the ceremony.

"Robby was brave," said Hunt, his stepfather. "He loved the Marines and wanted to do something to protect his family and friends. There was no talking him out of it."

Martinez also persuaded his family members to ship boxes full of treats to him because he loved handing out candy to Iraqi children.

Hines said her only other son, Martinez's 15-year-old half-brother, Mikey McGehee, is determined to join the military and "finish what his brother started."

Yet she said she hopes the fighting will have ended by then.

Of the tribute, she said: "This will be a permanent remembrance, long after we're gone."

cindy.horswell@chron.com