By Louis Hoglund

Pelican Rapids Press

Like nearly every Sunday since about 1962, Alwyn Martinson took his seat in the pews of Vergas United Methodist Church on Sunday, Nov. 9. 

There wasn’t a whole lot of fanfare, but on the eve of Tuesday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day, 2025,  it was duly noted that the church had the distinction of a World War II veteran in the congregation. 

Few are as thankful to the Lord as Alwyn Martinson, a Navy radio and signal man who survived some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II—including Okinawa and Iwo Jima.  

Alwyn is believed to be the last living radioman and boat pilot during the amphibious assault on the island of Iwo Jima, late in the war as Allied forces were defeating Japan, 1945, according to his son David.

Though it is difficult to completely verify, he is perhaps one of the last surviving World War II veterans with strong ties to Otter Tail County.

A relative “youngster” by World War II veteran standards, he was 17-years-old in 1944. His father had to sign off and give permission so the underage Alwyn Martinson could enlist. 

Radio and signal man Martinson was a participant in history. He helped coordinate tanks and equipment, which was followed by landing crafts full of troops. 

He was a witness to the iconic U.S. flag raising at Iwo Jima, one of several bloody affairs in the island-hopping war with Japan. By taking Iwo Jima, the Allies established a base for the invasion of Okinawa—which was the last major battle of World War II. An estimated 12,000 Americans were killed during the Okinawa invasion. 

So heavy were the losses at Okinawa, that the U.S. decided to unleash its secret weapon.  Instead of a catastrophic invasion of the Japanese mainland, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki—forcing surrender of the Japanese Imperial Army. 

  A Breckenridge area native, he and the family moved to rural Vergas in the early 1960’s. The family farmed, but Alwyn also worked off the farm. 

Though Alwyn moved from the farm to a senior living apartment in Vergas, and now to a facility in Breckenridge—he still attends church in Vergas most Sundays. 

Son David, who plays organ at Vergas Methodist, is a Wahpeton area resident—but the father-son pair travel to Vergas almost weekly for church. 

The Martinson family had strong connections to both the Vergas and Pelican Rapids communities. All five of the Martinson kids graduated from Pelican Rapids High School: Dennis, David, Donna, Mary Lou and Carol.