One of the hundreds of gravestones in Columbia’s Woodlawn Cemetery bears the name of Pfc. Jewell Roland Martin.
His body, just 21 years after it entered this world, found its final rest there May 24, 1953 — a week before Memorial Day was commemorated.
Yet it had been a long journey to reach that destination. Pfc. Martin, according to contemporary reports in The Columbian-Progress, was killed in action nearly two months earlier and 7,000 miles away — March 27, 1953, at Vegas Hill in Korea. A member of the 1st Division of the U.S. Marine Corps, he was already a combat veteran, having previously fought in the battles of Pinpoint Ridge, Old Baldy and Bunker Hill.
The Marine escort accompanying his body to Columbia presented the Marion County native’s mother with the flag draping his casket.
Although that somber scene played out 65 years ago, its significance remains just as strong today. Pfc. Martin, along with 140 of his fellow Marines who also paid the ultimate sacrifice in that bloody battle, were fighting a conflict that remains alive today on the Korean peninsula.
The chance for peace stands more hopeful now than in many years because of the talks between the warring sides, despite cancellation of the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
And on a larger scale, all U.S. soldiers who have given their lives for their countries do so in the name of country’s founding ideals: freedom and peace.
This Monday on Memorial Day, we remember the more than 666,441 soldiers who gave their lives in battle so that we who remain can enjoy those hard-earned blessings. n
— Charlie Smith
