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00:00Welcome to Operation Healing Heroes. Join us in the boat today in beautiful Minnesota
00:08as we feature the life of Staff Sergeant Domingo Martinez.
00:13They served for us.
00:18They sacrificed for us.
00:22Their stories deserve to be told.
00:25Every military veteran has a story to tell.
00:33Join our host, Jay Garstecki, as we honor the stories of our true American heroes, one soldier at a time.
00:43The mission today is Operation Healing Heroes.
00:49Brought to you by Great Clips.
00:55Our lives are like winding roads that lead us to places and people over the course of our lifetimes.
01:05And along the way, we make friends.
01:09Domingo Martinez and Jay Garstecki are friends whose paths would cross at precisely the right time of their lives.
01:18So, Domingo, tell me, where'd you grow up?
01:21I grew up in a small Texas town called Angleton, Texas.
01:27And I was raised by my grandparents.
01:32They had 13 kids of their own, and my mom was too young to keep me.
01:43Her parents wouldn't allow her to bring me home.
01:47So, my dad's parents brought me home to their already big family.
01:53The house was already full, the house was small, but they decided that they wanted to have me at their home.
02:01So, I was raised amongst aunts and uncles.
02:05My grandmother was the one that was the protector of me.
02:11She was the one that made sure that I had everything that I needed, not because my grandfather wasn't, it was because he was always working.
02:23He was a disciplinarian in the family.
02:26By the time I was five years old, I had an aunt that had gotten married.
02:31And my grandfather built this little shack or little one-room home in the back of the house that we stayed in.
02:42And one evening, they asked, you know, they brought, they took me back there to, like, to spend the night or something.
02:48And I ended up getting molested.
02:53And it was...
02:55By your uncle?
02:56Yeah.
02:57Her husband, you know.
02:59And it was somebody I didn't know that well.
03:03And it was a long night, you know.
03:08And I should have ran back to the other house.
03:12I don't know why I didn't.
03:14I never told anyone why I didn't.
03:18I don't know.
03:20It was just something that...
03:22You felt ashamed?
03:25Yeah, I felt very ashamed.
03:29As I got older, I became angrier.
03:34And I really became angry at my aunt because, you know, when I was a baby, you know, she had a lot to do with my upbringing.
03:42Mm-hmm.
03:42You trusted her.
03:43Yeah, I did.
03:44And she didn't do anything about it.
03:47And, uh...
03:49Did she know about it?
03:51Yeah, she was there.
03:52I didn't know what was happening at that age.
03:56Mm-hmm.
03:57I just knew it was wrong and it was painful.
04:01And, you know, I remember the look on his face.
04:06It was like a laughter.
04:08You know, like, uh, he just laughed.
04:12And, uh, if I'd have told my grandfather, he probably would have killed that man.
04:17Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, Northern Clearing, and by Enbridge.
04:30Operation Healing Heroes is a non-profit organization dedicated to documenting the lives of our U.S. military veterans.
04:42In addition, we also provide financial support and treatment for post-traumatic stress.
04:47Your donation will help heal our heroes.
04:50After enduring unimaginable childhood trauma at the hands of his uncle, Domingo continued to work alongside the rest of his family to put food on the table in a toxic environment, an environment riddled with racism.
05:11We were the only Mexicans in an all-black neighborhood.
05:14During segregation, it was all, like, uh, Mexicans in the Mexican neighborhood, whites in the whites, blacks in the blacks, except for us.
05:25We lived in an all-black neighborhood.
05:27And that was very hard.
05:29We lived, like, two houses, uh, from all the black beer joints in that area.
05:37You know, it was a very, uh, volatile, toxic neighborhood, and it was like that forever.
05:43But one of the hardest, the hardest thing for me was, uh, you know, when you go down to buy stuff that you need, you know, they would treat, they would mistreat my, my grandparents.
05:57They would, they would treat them, you know, with disrespect.
06:01You know, they would talk down to them.
06:02They would yell at them.
06:03They would call them names.
06:05You know, they didn't know, they didn't know English that well.
06:08You know, it's very hard to see your grandparents treated that way.
06:14It was, uh, not just some of the time, but it was all the time.
06:18Uh-huh.
06:18You know, we couldn't go into the restaurants.
06:22Um, we couldn't go into, uh, some of the stores.
06:28If you did, if, you know, uh, they would tell you to, to get out.
06:33You know, they wouldn't just say, you can't be in here to get out.
06:36They would just say stuff like, you know, uh, get that Mexican, get those Mexicans out of here.
06:43Or get those bean eaters out of here.
06:45It, it's still painful to this day.
06:47We saw a documentary on TV not long ago about something about that.
06:52And, uh, it struck me hard.
07:03It struck, it struck me hard where I, I told my wife.
07:09I remember, I'm sorry.
07:12I remember seeing the faces of my grandparents.
07:18And, and it hurts to this day.
07:22I apologize.
07:22Thank God.
07:27They had to do things in that household to survive, like, uh, wash people's clothes,
07:35arPacals clothes, and, uh, you know, charge bot the peace.
07:40Then they would clean people's houses, clean churches.
07:44And of course, all of us, all of us picked cotton and pecans.
07:48And we would sell them at the bus station for extra money.
07:53Seven or eight years old, when we started,
07:56that I remember when we started picking pecans and cotton,
08:00I remember the fact that you would be pushed to keep doing it
08:05because the more cotton you picked, the more money the owner made.
08:08You know, so it wasn't just cordial or you pick at your own leisure.
08:14You had to keep pushing, even as a kid.
08:17It was a life that I was blessed with, I was grateful for.
08:24And I just thought that, you know, our life was like everybody else's life.
08:33Domingo's grandfather wanted a better life for his grandson.
08:37He encouraged Domingo to join the United States military.
08:42So at what point did you decide you wanted to go into the military?
08:45You know, my grandfather believed that we should serve our country.
08:50He was from Mexico, as was my grandmother.
08:54They weren't citizens of the United States.
08:57But he loved this country and he felt that as soon as, you know,
09:04you're able to, you should serve this country.
09:06And he felt that as soon as, you know, you're able to,
09:07and so it was my turn.
09:10And not only that, it was, you know, part of survival as well,
09:15but he felt that it was necessary to go and do my duty
09:20and serve my country, whatever it may be.
09:24So your grandparents were here illegally,
09:26but yet they still felt patriotism.
09:28They felt a lot of patriotism throughout all the hate.
09:32There was a lot of hate toward them.
09:35And there was a lot of racism towards them, but they loved the United States of America.
09:41He knew that it was time.
09:43I knew it was time.
09:44And we had that talk.
09:45Me, I was like a Gomer Pau.
09:47I was just happy as can be, you know.
09:49I was so happy that day, you know, there was, there was, there was no fear.
09:56We got back to the barracks.
09:57They, they show you what to do and you have to get dressed into your uniform.
10:02And I thought, man, I got these new clothes.
10:05You know, I, I've never had new clothes before like this.
10:10And I got new suits, new boots, and we had to learn to, to shine them and everything.
10:16And, uh, I was in heaven.
10:21Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Great Clips, the Al Lynch Foundation, and by Lumberjack Lodge.
10:36Oh, you got a nice one.
10:42Oh, nice.
10:44All right.
10:45Nice fish.
10:47That's a nice fish.
10:49All right.
10:49Good job.
10:50Look at this.
10:51If you'd like to see more behind the scenes footage, follow us on social media and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
10:58If you're a U.S. military veteran in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, or beautiful sunny Florida, log on to our website, takeovetfishing.org, to find an event near you.
11:15In 1976, Domingo was sent to Korea to patrol the Demilitarized Zone, also known simply as the DMZ.
11:24Little did he know that the months ahead would change his life forever.
11:29When you get to Korea, you're in this processing situation.
11:37You got all these soldiers there, and you're waiting to be processed to different parts of the country.
11:41And so the day that your orders come in, you know, we're all sitting in a room, and one person's going up north, one person.
11:54And everybody's scared.
11:55You know, who's going up north?
11:56Domingo continued his patrols and was still on the DMZ during the axe murders.
12:26The murders of two American soldiers, while American and South Korean forces were trying to simply trim a tree that was obscuring the view of the North Korean border.
12:36The murders nearly led to World War III, as the DMZ was placed on DEFCON III, and tensions ran at an all-time high.
12:46The atrocities that Domingo witnessed were simply unspeakable.
12:51That trauma led to PTSD that plagues Domingo to this day.
12:57I ended up just wanting to be by myself.
13:01That was what threw me into the isolation phase.
13:04And I isolated, and what I became, like, fearful of everything.
13:14Like, if somebody would knock on the door, I would stand behind the wall.
13:19There were times that I would feel safer if I slept under the table or in a closet.
13:30I drank for many, many years.
13:33I ended up divorced.
13:36I got a second chance with my wife now.
13:39She ended up having to deal with my alcoholism, and she took it for many years, still with the isolation and suicide attempts.
13:52Then one day, she ran across to take a vet fishing somehow, and she registered me.
13:59And she said, we're going to take a trip on this day, and you're going to go fishing with some other veterans.
14:07And I said, no, I'm not.
14:09She made me, and I was on the boat for an hour, so I didn't say a word.
14:14And then I just started fishing and got light.
14:19Then he started talking, and the other gentleman started talking, and then I relaxed a little bit.
14:24And then I thought, I think I'm going to be okay.
14:29And then when we got back, my wife was there waiting on me, and she said, are you okay?
14:34I said, I think so.
14:35And then I saw you, and we started talking, and you had talked about different organizations that help people with PTSD and different things.
14:51And you gave me a card, and I gave you my phone number, and you said that, I'm going to give you a call, and maybe this will help you.
15:00And I told my wife, I'll never hear from him.
15:06And I wasn't even a week, and you called me and asked me if I'd be interested in trying to go to Sparta.
15:15And my wife said yes, that I would go.
15:19And when I went to Sparta, something happened there that had just switched me from all negative to positive.
15:28The one phone call that I took from Jay Garcecki changed my entire life.
15:44Take a Vet Fishing was created for those who served our great nation.
15:48A simple day of giving back has been the mission for over 20 years.
15:53Visit TakeAVetFishing.org to sign up for an event near you.
15:58If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes, or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org.
16:10Operation Healing Heroes is brought to you by Recon Boats, Humminbird, Minn Kota, and by PowerPole.
16:20So how long did you serve in the military in total?
16:28I served eight years.
16:31But there's a lot of people that face trauma and they talk about it.
16:37There's a lot of people that face trauma and don't talk about it.
16:40But I gave eight years of my life and I served, you know, because I love my country.
16:50But there's a lot of things that I did that I don't want to remember.
16:56There are some things that I don't want to talk about that I did witness on the DMZ, and I think I'm not the only one.
17:06But I live with it.
17:11You know, I think about it.
17:14But there's something that my motto is, you know, you deal with your trauma your own way.
17:24You heal your own way and you shouldn't be judged by it.
17:28You know, I don't want to talk about it.
17:32There's people that can talk about it all day and feel great about it.
17:38There's people that can't even think about it because it brings back memories that they rather not think about.
17:54And I rather not think about any of that thing.
17:57I rather just go on with my life.
18:01And, you know, it was a thing of my past.
18:04You know, I raised my hand because I love this country and I did my part.
18:14And if I could do it over again, I would.
18:17But it doesn't mean that I have to talk about things that I don't want to talk about.
18:22Sometimes the greatest blessing to someone in need is just to be a listening ear when they are good and ready to speak.
18:31And when we can truly help someone, lifelong friendships are formed.
18:37I never expected anybody to help me like that.
18:41I think the emotion right now is that I was in serious shape.
18:48And you saw through that.
18:51I've known you now for how many years, Domingo?
18:55Four or five years.
18:57At least four or five years, right?
18:58Yeah.
18:58And when I'm not with you, I want you to know I miss you and I love you too, brother.
19:03You know that, right?
19:05You serious?
19:06Of course you know that.
19:07Yeah.
19:10You know how many times I want to, like, call you but I don't because I know how busy you are?
19:16I'm never too busy for you.
19:17I tell you that every time.
19:18I know you do, but it's like, man, I'm in, I feel like I'm in trouble.
19:22I'm in trouble.
19:23You know, I feel like I'm in, like I need to talk to somebody.
19:27And I feel like I need to call Jay.
19:29Call me.
19:29You know you can always call me, brother.
19:32You know that, right?
19:33Yeah.
19:33I want to make sure that we commemorate this day and our friendship by me showing you some
19:40honor and some dignity like you showed your son and your grandparents and your wife.
19:45So this is a custom St. Croix rod that was made by Thorn Brothers for you.
19:51It's got our logo on all the branches of service.
19:53And I'm going to flip it around here.
19:55And it says custom built for Domingo Martinez.
19:58It's got your name on there and appreciation for your sacrifice and service.
20:01And that's for you, brother.
20:03And I know you've been wanting one of these shirts.
20:06I have.
20:07And now you got it.
20:08So there's your Domingo Martinez and Martinez on the back.
20:12That's for you.
20:13I appreciate you, man.
20:15Thank you so much.
20:16And I better be the first guy you call if you ever need anything.
20:18You know that?
20:19Yeah.
20:20I will.
20:20I love you, man.
20:21I love you, too.
20:22I know you do.
20:23Yeah.
20:24Brothers forever now, right?
20:25More than you know.
20:31If you'd like to personally thank a veteran that you've seen in one of our episodes or nominate a veteran to be featured in a future episode, log on to our website, OperationHealingHeroes.org, and click on the Nominate button.
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