Tyrone Gabriel Martin (born June 5, 1930) is a retired

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

commander Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank as well as a job title in many army, armies. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countri ...

, and a naval historian, most notable as an authority on ("Old Ironsides"), of which he was the 58th commanding officer. Martin was born in

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on 5 June 1930 and commissioned an officer through the NROTC in 1952. During his twenty-six years of navy service he commanded two

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

s on tours of duty off

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and

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finally becoming the commanding officer (captain) of ''Constitution'' on 6 August 1974. In July 1976, during the

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celebrations,

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and

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, arrived for their

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and privately toured the ship for approximately thirty minutes with Commander Martin and Secretary of the Navy J. William Middendorf. During the 1980s, he was a Senior Naval Science Instructor (SNSI) for the NJROTC program at Boston Technical High School. During Martin's tenure as Commanding Officer, several traditions were instituted that are still observed by the crew of ''Constitution'' such as the wearing of 1812 era uniforms and the practice of firing morning and sunset guns. ''Constitution'' received her first

Meritorious Unit Commendation The Meritorious Unit Commendation (MUC; pronounced ''muck'') is a mid-level unit award of the United States Armed Forces. The U.S. Army awards units the Army MUC for exceptionally meritorious conduct in performance of outstanding achievement or ...

during his tour and Martin was the first Captain to be decorated for service since Charles Stewart. Martin turned over command of the ship to Commander Robert Leo Gillen on 30 June 1978. Now retired, Martin has written several books about "Old Ironsides", as well as numerous articles on various aspects of the ship and her times, plus the "Salty Talk" column in the journal ''Naval History''. In 2019, the Naval Historical Foundation awarded Martin the Commodore Dudley W. Knox Naval History Lifetime Achievement Award.''Pull Together: Newsletter of the Naval Historical Foundation'', vo. 58, no. 1 (Summer 2019), pp. 9-11.

Works

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Tyrone G. American naval historians American male non-fiction writers United States Navy officers Living people 1930 births