tan Martinez arrived in Vietnam in January 1968 and was assigned to a RECON Platoon with the Ninth Infantry Division just south of Saigon. On September 15th that year, a B-40 Rocket Propelled Grenade Launcher shattered two of his vertebras during a night ambush. When Stan attempted to return fire, a bullet grazed the left side of his head. As he lay face down, unable to move, he was shot again, in the back. Recently Stan said, “The daily pain I experience is a constant reminder of God’s grace and helps me keep things in proper perspective. I should have died in 1968. Instead I’ve had 41 extra years.”

God saves

Stan grew up in California. He had a great relationship with his mother and what he considers a normal childhood with his three siblings. The only thorn in his early years was his father. “My dad was a strict disciplinarian. At the time, it seemed the only attention I got from him was negative. I didn’t like my Dad and I honestly don’t believe he liked me.”

By his teen years, Stan was hanging out with a tough crowd, which led to his near arrest for grand theft auto. He is fortunate to have only been charged with joy riding. After his arrest Stan cleaned up his act. The friends he hung out with during that time either died violent deaths or wound up serving serious prison sentences.

At age 20 Stan got orders to Vietnam. He remembers that night in September 1968 when he was shot, “Though groggy, I remained conscious during the entire incident. I told myself, ‘Remain calm … Don’t go into shock.’ I heard the fire-fight mixed with yelling and screaming in English and Vietnamese. And then, finally, silence. All of the enemy soldiers were dead.”

Stan Martinez in Vietnam.

Stan continues, “I heard my sergeant ask the medic, ‘How is he?’ ‘There is nothing I can do for him. He is too far gone and injured too badly to be helped,’ was the medic’s solemn response.”

God speaks

As the medic spoke, Stan heard another still, small voice. It calmed and reassured him with one simple, authoritative sentence, “You’re hurt bad, but you’re not going to die.”

Stan was not a Christian but knew enough to know the voice was God. Soon after hearing of his injury, back in California, Stan’s mother, who had left her Christian faith years before, prayed, “Lord if you spare my son, I will serve you the rest of my life.” God saved and Stan’s mother kept her covenant with the Lord.

It wasn’t until 1979 that Stan would make his own decision for Christ. His cousin Bev invited him to a Wednesday night church service. He’d seen such a change in her life – she had been a partier and drug user for years – he decided to check it out. At that service a preacher asked all the cigarette smokers to come forward so he could pray for them for deliverance. Stan had started smoking in Vietnam and came forward, “I went down to prove he was a phony.”

“This guy barely touched me and I fell to the floor crying. It seemed like two minutes, but I lay there for 10 minutes. I stood up and, with the exception of a relapse in the 1990s, I haven’t had a craving for a cigarette since then and I didn’t experience any withdrawals.”

God renews

Stan started reading the Bible after this incident. Because he was between jobs he could spend 8 to 12 hours a day in the word. Bev and her husband became Stan’s spiritual parents. During the next couple of years, God softened Stan’s heart toward his father.

Stan recounts, “In 1981, I gave my father a birthday card with the words of Malachi 4:6, ‘He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers ….’ Under the verse I wrote the words, ‘On my part this has been fulfilled.’”

“That was the first time I saw my Dad cry. That moment our relationship transformed from hate to unconditional love. Oh, to be reconciled with my father, that’s the Lord’s ability to change both of our hearts,” Stan continues.

Stan Martinez

About marriage, Stan has an interesting perspective. Of his first marriage he says, “We were too young. I was 20 and she was 18. I was about to head to Vietnam when we got married. While I was gone she had an affair. When I returned home we tried to work it out, but we had too much to overcome – the war, infidelity, my injuries, our ages. We got divorced.”

“I got married again in 1981 to a woman I met at church. We sang in the choir and served in various ministries together. I thought she was a solid Christian. After three years of marriage, she admitted to herself and me that she wasn’t ready to serve the Lord or be married.”

Stan concluded that his second wife was trying to be what everyone else wanted her to be. Her parents and brother were devoted Christians, but apparently her own Christianity was never personal. He has no bitterness towards either woman but admits he’s a little gun shy about marriage and relationships in general after being hurt twice.

God blesses trials

“The good part about it all is I know the pain of divorce and, when I meet someone else going through it, I can relate. I don’t judge them and I can minister to them with compassion. God uses all the bad things in our lives to allow us to be a witness to someone else going through something similar.”

Stan considers himself blessed to have a church family and a Bible study group that has met in his home for 13 years. He disciples other men, writes music and has even written a book, “The Wall Within,” about his experiences in Vietnam. “I know many singles who have no one in their life. Thank God I have people who love and accept me unconditionally.”

Stan says, “God intervened and saved my life. I know if I had died on that battlefield I would have gone to hell. And if I wasn’t shot down I would have died soon after. You see, two weeks after I was wounded, my platoon was ambushed and my entire squad got wiped out. I don’t take a single day for granted. I am thankful for everything. After all, my Savior died for me. The least I can do is live a life that brings him glory and honor.”