Ships
- USS Oakland (CL-95) Captain from 12 March 1948 · Relieved in May 1949
Hugh Jack Martin had the light cruiser Oakland (CL-95) from 12 March 1948 until May 1949, during her last cruise to China and the start of her inactivation. His war was fought in destroyers and on a flag staff, not in her. NavSource lists his final rank as rear admiral.
Find a Grave says he was born on 12 May 1902 at Acworth, Cobb County, Georgia, and died on 12 December 1992 at Alexandria, Virginia. Hall of Valor gives the same dates and gives his home as Adairsville, Georgia. The two places are both given, as the sources give them. Find a Grave lists his parents as William Paul Martin Sr. and Julia Abbott Martin, and his wife as Eva Lavinia Price Martin, born in 1902, married in 1924, and died in 1986.
Hall of Valor says he graduated from the Naval Academy with the class of 1924 and retired as a rear admiral. No Lucky Bag page was fetched. The marriage year on the grave memorial is the year of that class.
Hall of Valor prints a Legion of Merit for 7 December 1941 to 11 September 1942. He was aide and flag secretary to Commander Cruisers, Battle Force, then to Commander Anzac Force, and then to Commander Southwest Pacific Force. The citation says he took part in the defense of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and in a carrier task-force patrol in the central Pacific in January 1942. A Silver Star is for 15 December 1944, as commander of Destroyer Squadron 51 and of the screen and bombardment unit of the Seventh Amphibious Force at the landing at San Jose, Mindoro, with his flag in a ship the citation does not name in the opening beyond the squadron. It says his ships helped destroy ten aircraft and that the bombardment let the Army land unchallenged. A Gold Star in lieu of a second Silver Star covers 25 March to 24 April 1945, still as commander of Destroyer Squadron 51, flag in Hall, off Okinawa. It says the squadron destroyed gun emplacements, trucks, tanks, and pillboxes, and that Hall shot down two planes and assisted in a third.
NavSource dates his command of Oakland from 12 March 1948 to May 1949, with no day in May. DANFS does not name him. In that span the ship made two cruises in Chinese waters, 26 April to 10 July 1948 and 27 September to 9 November 1948, and then reported for inactivation on 28 February 1949. Captain Ernest Bradford Ellsworth Jr. is the next name on the NavSource list, from May 1949. Find a Grave says Martin died at Alexandria on 12 December 1992, that he was interred at Arlington National Cemetery on 16 December 1992, and that the grave is Section 64, Site 5223. The memorial marks him as a Navy veteran and does not list later commands.