Army Staff Sgt. Jack M. Martin III

Died September 29, 2009 Serving During Operation Enduring Freedom

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26, of Bethany, Okla.; assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, Fort Lewis, Wash.; died Sept. 29 in Jolo Island, Philippines, from the detonation of an improvised explosive device. Also killed was Sgt. 1st Class Christopher D. Shaw.

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Wanted to work in schools

The Associated Press

Jack M. Martin III dreamed of working as an educator or finding another way to help people when his time in the military ended, his family said.

The 26-year-old from Bethany, Okla., was helping to resupply a school construction project in the Philippines when he was killed Sept. 29 by a bomb buried beneath a road on Jolo Island. Military officials said he was part of a task force deployed to help quell militants there.

Martin, the youngest of five children, was born in Iowa and grew up there and in Oklahoma. He played football and was an honors student at Bethany High School, graduating in 2001.

He started out in the Army Reserve before studying at the University of Central Oklahoma, said his father, Jack Martin Jr., adding that his son was in basic training during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The younger Martin had volunteered to go to Iraq, and when that deployment was canceled, he met with a recruiter looking for special forces volunteers and became a Green Beret. He was assigned to Fort Lewis.

“He was a very kind and loving person that was very intelligent with numbers,” his father said.

Martin’s survivors include his wife, Ashley.