• Dawnelle Gordon, chair of the Captain Robert L. Martin Commemoration Committee,
• Gabrielle Martin, eldest daughter of Captain Martin, retired from the Federal Government Equal Employment Opportunity Commission,
• R.R.S. Stewart, Adjunct Professor at Loras College and an Architectural, Writing, and Parliamentary Consultant
• Ryan Byrnes, Novelist, Technical Writer, and NAACP volunteer based in Dubuque

Captain Robert L. Martin was born in Dubuque in February 1919. After graduating Dubuque Senior High School in 1936, Captain Martin enrolled at Iowa State University where he graduated with an electrical engineering degree and a pilot's license.

Captain Martin was accepted to the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942. Captain Martin then transferred to the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama and became one of the original Tuskegee Airman, a Black segregated aviator group. At the age of 23, Captain Martin graduated from the Tuskegee Army Air Field, 66th Flying Training Detachment, he received his wings and commission as a 2nd Lieutenant. He arrived in Italy where he joined the 100th Fighter Squadron, part of the all-Black 332nd Fighter Group.

While flying his 64th mission, he was hit by enemy fire, bailed out and landed behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, Purple Heart, the Air Medal with 6 Oak Leaf Clusters and as part of the Tuskegee Airmen group, Mr. Martin received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor.

After the war, he found work as an Electrical Engineer in Chicago, Illinois. He spent his final decade in Olympia Fields, Illinois where he passed away on July 26, 2018.

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