Maryland's Seventieth Hero

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Army Staff Sgt. Jay E. Martin, 29, of Baltimore, MD. died Apr. 29 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit during combat operations. Also killed were Army Sgt. Alexander J. Funcheon, 21, of Bel Aire, Kan. and Army Pfc. Brian A. Botello, 19, of Alta, Iowa.

HE WAS A SHINING STAR

The two Army officers, sharp in their uniforms, arrived Sunday afternoon at Dwight Martin's home in a quiet, leafy neighborhood in West Baltimore.

Mr. Martin was blocks away, at a neighbor's house, cutting grass as a favor when his niece called his cell phone. He knew.

"She said there were two and dressed in full uniform," Mr. Martin said. "It was a parent's worst nightmare. They don't come unless there's a death."

Sergeant Martin, 29, was the third alumnus of Forest Park and its Junior ROTC program to die at war. Within two weeks in August 2005, two members of the Class of 2000 died in combat -- Army Spc. Toccara Renee Green in Iraq and Army Staff Sgt. Damion G. Campbell in Afghanistan.

"When the city is just full of so much sadness, he was just a shining star," said one of Sergeant Martin's sisters, Lark Adams, 25, of Reservoir Hill. "He followed the rules. He did what he was supposed to. He was an example to everyone."

Family and friends described him yesterday as a typical kid who loved Star Wars and playing Mortal Kombat on a television in his grandmother's kitchen. When an aunt brought him to Disney World, there wasn't a ride he wouldn't get on. But in other ways, they recalled him as remarkable.

Even as a young boy, he talked military. Playing hide-and-go-seek in his West Baltimore neighborhood in the Dickey Hill Forest Apartments, he created strategies, said a childhood friend, Dwight Taylor-Peay. He commanded the others to serve as "lookouts." He warned of "an ambush."

Later, as the boys grew into young men, Sergeant Martin preached to friends the importance of college, Mr. Taylor-Peay said. Sergeant Martin, who also ran track at Forest Park, attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. He left after a year, realizing he could never be a pilot because he didn't have 20/20 vision.

"Jay was always ... positive, ambitious, militant," said Mr. Taylor-Peay, 28, of York, Pa. "He was always your good conscience. Just fooling around, playing a prank on somebody that went too far, Jay was always the civilized one. He had a good sense of humor, but at the same time he was serious. He was about his business."

Sergeant Martin worked reconnaissance and was often on the go, his family said, able to call or e-mail only a few times since he left for Iraq in October. In an e-mail to Mrs. Martin-Graham, he told his aunt, "I don't stay in one spot too long, we're on top of buildings setting up."

His sister, Lark Adams, recalls him sharing how much violence he saw in Iraq. "He told me that this is the most gunfire I've ever seen in my life. He just kept on saying, 'I've never seen anything like this. I've never seen anything like this.' But he said, 'We're catching the bad guys.'"

Sergeant Martin had been scheduled for a two-week break from Iraq in April, but -- in a move typical of his nature -- his family said he allowed a fellow soldier whose wife just had a baby to take his place.