Chester Martin

Chester Martin is a citizen of the United States who grew up in Toledo, Ohio. He was a corporal, and then a sergeant, in the Great War, saving President Theodore Roosevelt's life among other things, and was wounded in 1916. He was initially a Democrat, as his father was, but turned to Socialism during the post-war labor strife of 1918. During the midterm election of 1925 he met his future wife, Rita.

Martin lost his steelworking job in the aftermath of the 1929 Stock Market crash, but was helped by his parents and moved to Los Angeles, California, where he became a housebuilder. He became the local union leader during the Depression and led the restoration of the Socialist Party to power in the area. During the Second Great War he secured a truce with the local house-building tycoon, which secured capitalist recognition of the L.A. union.

He volunteered for the Army in February 1942 and was sent to the Virginia front as a sergeant where he was wounded at Fredericksburg. Upon recovery Martin served in Irving Morrell's encirclement of the Confederate Army in the Battle of Pittsburgh. In March 1943, Chester Martin was still alive.