MERCEDES — J.O. Martinez cruised into the Bealls Plaza for the annual Memorial Day ceremony Monday.
He made his grand entrance riding his tribute motorcycle in memory of his brother Pedro, who served in the Vietnam War.
Martinez’s 2007 custom Victory motorcycle has his brother’s likeness in Marine uniform on the gas tank.
The seat is outfitted with machine gun rounds around the edge and the tail of the bike lists the many operations Pedro participated and fought in during the Vietnam War.
His brother died during Operation Hastings in South Vietnam in 1966 when J.O. was still in high school.
J.O., a 67-year-old Mercedes resident, is a member of the Patriot Guard Riders.
The motorcycle group attended the Mercedes Veterans Memorial ceremony on Monday.
J.O. has taken the bike year-after-year to the memorial for people to see and to remember his brother and the men and women who lost their lives defending freedom.
Marinez was only 15 when his big brother Pedro volunteered to fight in the Vietnam War in 1966.
Pedro was 18 and right out of Mercedes High School when he enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corp.
Soon after basic training, Pedro was sent to Okinawa, Japan, and then he was ordered to go to Da Nag, South Vietnam.
As soon as Pedro arrived in Vietnam, he and his platoon were on missions in the jungles to fight. There, he was involved in intense battles along the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the war.
After several more missions, Pedro died in action in a battle with North Vietnamese during Operation Hastings while under intense small arms attack defending the front lines. It was July 1966.
Word later came home through telegram to notify the Martinez family their son had died in the war.
And about three years later, Pedro’s little brother J.O. was drafted in 1970.
He said he was the fifth number called in the lottery to go fight in the war with the U.S. Army.
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