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Retired Army Colonel Martin Beach lives in paradise
now. He moved to Ewa Beach, Hawaii, after a career of
military and public service that included being Pender
County manager and interim town manager for Topsail
Beach and Burgaw. But as a young man in Fairmont,
North Carolina, he volunteered to serve
in Vietnam.
“At the beginning of the war, I was
safe from the draft,” Beach says. “I was in
the reserves, but just had the feeling that
if the country was at war, I wanted to be
part of it. I had been given a lot by this
country.”
Beach enlisted in 1966 in Raleigh
and arrived in Vietnam in 1967. At 22,
he was older than many of his counter-parts
there. Beach began as an artillery
forward observer and worked his way
up to battalion commander.
When Beach returned to the states
after his tour that lasted a year and a
half, he landed uneventfully at Travis
Air Force Base in California. But to get
out of California, he had to fly to San
Francisco.
“Some idiot tried to throw a red liquid
on me,” Beach says. “I started to chase
him … but I went over there so people
had the right to express themselves, even though I may
not agree with them.”
He was assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia, after
Vietnam.
“Down South, you didn’t have as much of the ugly
stuff,” he says. “I stayed on base primarily and had no
other experience with radicals.”
Beach says that he began to see a change in American
attitudes toward the military in the late ’80s and early
’90s.
“It evolved. Mainstream America started to realize the
sacrifice made by all soldiers. They began to understand
that soldiers don’t make war, politicians do. Soldiers carry
out orders. Just like everyone else, we had a job to do and
we did it.”
Beach never attended any of the rallies or parades held
in honor of Vietnam veterans during the 50th anniversary
of the end of the war.
“It was better late than never,” Beach says, “but no one
can make up for what happened. We didn’t expect big
parades when we came back, but we didn’t expect to be
spit on, either.”
Beach when he
retired from the
Army in 1994,
and at home in
Hawaii 23 years
later.
Martin Beach
U.S. ARMY
Martin Beach in Vietnam in 1968.
Beach was promoted to captain
after returning from Vietnam in
1969. He was a lieutenant while
serving in ‘Nam in ’68.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MARTIN BEACH
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com