Read it here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/18/BAEV16IBV5.DTL

First photo - Harold "Curly" Martin, Age 92; Second photo - Mr. Martin with Carl Nolte, SF Chronicle feature reporter during interview. Representatives from Dolphin, Holland, Cyberspace, and Groton Bases were on hand to greet our distinguished guest.

Mr. Martin came back today to spend some more quiet time aboard the boat and promptly became a major attraction with the visitors streaming thru. His biggest challenge was finding "my tea and toast for breakfast this morning." Tomorrow - a tour of Alcatraz Island. He is somewhat amused that the newspapers are making such a fuss but we've armed him with plenty of printouts of all the photos and the article itself to take home. Gwen promises to plaster the coffee house walls with the article and photos.

Carl Nolte authored a book about PAMPANITO which he autographed for Mr. Martin. Not to be outdone, since the POW rescue story is a major part of Carl's book, Mr. Martin promptly autographed another copy of the book and presented it back to its author. Talk about a sharp wit and an even sharper mind!

The bummer for the day is indeed ironic - one of the PAMPANITO crewmen, Bill Fisk, who went into the water to help rescue Mr. Martin lives up Sacramento way. Four folks from Holland Gold Country Base were going to bring him down to be reunited with Mr. Martin - which was intended to be a surprise.

The night before, Bill called to let them know that he wasn't feeling all that well, so while he couldn't make the 3 hour drive down, he wanted them to convey his warmest greetings to Mr. Martin. As the contingent was doing just that, they received notification that Shipmate Bill Fisk had passed during the night!

It is worthy of note, however, to recognize that Holland Base has an active outreach program in which they are contacting WWII subvets and interviewing them, complete with an audio and video recording. They taped the entire Carl Nolte interview with Mr. Martin plus they got some additional footage of his trip back thru PAMPANITO to add to their ever-growing project.

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