Forgotten hero
After 39 years, Vietnam War casualty still a hero

Jeanette Pablo and her son, Emerson Martin Jr. hold military decorations and honors eaarned by their husband and father, Emerson Martin Sr. during the Vietnam War. [photo by Brian Leddy / Independent]

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — Although she saw the men walking up her driveway in Churchrock almost 39 years ago, Jeanette Pablo still remembers the emotions that came over her and her decision not to go to the door.

“My older sister had to go to the door,” she said.

But it made no difference. The soldiers were there to tell her that her husband of five months was one of the casualties of the Vietnam War and that her son who was born after his father went to war would grow up never being able to hear his father’s laugh.

And although she has carried on her life — gotten remarried and had more children — Pablo hasn’t forgotten Emerson Martin Sr. and has spent much of the past 39 years trying to get him the honors she feels he deserved for his bravery he showed the day he died.

A 1968 graduate of Gallup High School, Martin joined the U.S. Marines and married his wife the next January when he was on leave. For the next five months, he would send her photos and letters, telling her how he was coping and how he couldn’t wait to get back to Gallup and watch his son grow to adulthood.

She later learned that he was killed by a grenade as his unit was told to fall back because they ran out of ammunition.

One of many tragedies in a war that still doesn’t make a lot of sense to most Americans.

She would give the son his father’s name — Emerson Martin Jr. — and tell him how he made her laugh and feel special.

The two would spend a lot of time, she said, talking about the wonderful life they would have when he got back.

Even today, she says she feels she was cheated and maybe that’s part of the reason why for the past 30 years, she has talked to everyone who would listen about the need to honor his memory. But people, she said, just seem to want to forget that the Vietnam War ever occurred.

She has his medals — which includes a Purple heart and a Silver Star — in a case and she talks to her son about the man she grew to love. Today, Emerson Martin Jr., said he enjoyed hearing those stories but they don’t make up for the fact that he had to grow up without his father.

“Although I had a stepfather, it was tough, especially when I was in elementary school,” Emerson Martin Jr. said.

Several years ago, the Navajo Nation decide to honor members of the tribe who had died in the service of their country and placed their names on a memorial set up at Veteran’s Park in Window Rock.

But the tribe listed his name as Emerson Martin Jr., the son’s name.

Pablo said she complained and asked that the junior be changed to a senior. Tribal officials said it would be done but when she went back to the park year after year, she found him listed still as junior.

Finally, she told her story to U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who said he would try and get it changed. A couple of weeks letter he sent a letter to Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., asking him to do what he could. The memorial was soon changed.

As Americans prepare to celebrate Memorial Day on Monday, Pablo and her son will remember Emerson Martin Sr.

“I realize that the Vietnam War wasn’t that popular,” Pablo said, “but they were still heroes.”