George L. Martin (Captain, CHC, USN Ret.) is a "volunteer" assistant minister at McFarlin Methodist in Norman, Oklahoma, where he has been busy for several years instructing everyone on the "right way" to do things. He was born December 17, 1917 to George T. and Lena Dubois Martin in New Market, Alabama. The family originally moved to Oklahoma in 1919, where G. T. Martin was a "circuit rider" Methodist preacher. After graduating from East Central Teacher's College at 20, George taught English and Drama before officially joining the "family trade" of preaching.

He entered Iliff School of Theology in Denver in 1942, and after graduation was commissioned as a chaplain in the US Navy and attended Chaplain's School at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg.

His 27 years of chaplaincy went something like this:

Miami, Florida (1946), U.S.S. Oakland (46-47), N.A.S. Coronado (48-49), MSTS out of Bremerton (50-51), US Naval Hospital Memphis (52-53), NSA Yokusuka (53-54), US Naval Hospital Oakland (55-56), USS Boxer (57-58), USS Oriskany (59), US Coast Guard, Groton CT (60-62), post-graduate work at the Universityof Chicago (62-63), NSA Naples (63-65), USMC Camp Pendleton (65-67), 1st Marine Division in Vietnam (68-69), USMC Camp Lejeune (69-72).

Along the way, (USNH Memphis, 1952) he met and married Helen Wallis, a Navy Nurse who had served on the USS Benevolence when it sank off San Francisco in 1950.

They served together until 1957, when Helen resigned her commission just before their daughter, Mary, was born in 1958.

George retired as a captain in 1972 and the family returned to Oklahoma.

Retirement from the Navy didn't last long ....George became the pastor of a small Methodist Church in Wayne, Oklahoma, and then became the Executive Director of the local chapter of the American Red Cross.

After "retiring" two more times from those careers, he started volunteering at McFarlin, where he is still going strong.

In 1995, he and Helen also started new careers as grandparents.

When things calm down, he's hoping to catch a military transport plane soon to visit Turkey again, or maybe Europe, or maybe Japan .... or to explore points