Pan Am Captains Martin & Martin

When Frank Carroll Martin renewed his membership, he chose the new category of Senior. This level requires a birth date to prove that the member is 65 years of age or older, so I called Mr. Martin to record his date of birth, which did not appear on his application.

As I spoke to Mr. Martin, I noticed airplane pictured on the check he had enclosed with his renewal. Curious, I asked him if he had been a pilot. Frank said that he had been a Pan Am Clipper skipper and that his father, Frank Crawford Martin, had been an original China Clipper pilot.

I invited Frank to come to the museum to see some of the Pan Am Collection and to have lunch with the President/CEO Bob McCammon. During lunch, his father’s extensive flights during World War II brought forth many tales about Miami’s place in aeronautical history. Frank informed us that the majority of the soldiers captured from Rommel’s Africa Corps were housed as POWs in South Dade. He told us that the St. Sebastian Apartments in Coral Gables were used as barracks for Royal Air Force student pilots and navigators who were trained almost exclusively in Miami due to its advanced aeronautical facilities. One particularly interesting story relayed was that near the end of the war, his dad piloted the then Prince Feisal of Saudi Arabia to America for his first visit and, true to the “it’s small world” axiom, Bob’s father had flown the prince on the second leg of this same journey in California.

Frank Carroll Martin served as a Pan Am captain for more than fifteen years. He is currently the Area Coordinator for the Blue and Gold Program of the United States Naval Academy, in which he and his associates identify and mentor fine young men and women to become Midshipmen.

Frank is proud of Miami’s place in aeronautical history and the accomplishments of his father that changed the lives and history of the African American community in South Florida. The rewards of Frank Crawford’s labor are still being reaped today; the work of Frank Carroll will be seen tomorrow in the lives of young officers that will serve our nation with distinction.

Captains, the Historical Museum salutes you both!

-- Hilda Masip, Membership Officer

Top picture: Pan Am China Clipper, ca. 1935. HMSF, 1992-233-11.
Bottom photo: Frank Crawford Martin. Courtesy of Frank Carroll Martin.