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Greetings To Everyone At AdlandPro From John Sanchez and LaNell!
It’s time again for my favorite project of the week and that is the Feature of The Week! It is my favorite project because you folks and the POTW’s of the week make it a very special event. We are all so fortunate to be a part of this community that is made up of so many friendly and talented people. Thank you so much for your support and for making this event so special. Love and Blessings to you all! John R. Sanchez
The reason the Feature of the Week forum was created was to honor people who have a positive influence on this community. To qualify the person has to be an active member and one who contributes to the positive atmosphere here AdlandPro. Here are the criteria for nominating a member for the Feature of the Week (also referred to as the Person of the Week, POTW). This criterion can be seen at the site below:
Criterion
How Do I Get Selected as Person of the Week?
To be chosen as Person of the week you:
• Are highly visible on the community
• Are always seen as respectful, professional, and helpful.
• Must be nominated for the program by another member of the Community and voted on by other members.
• Must have a real photo of themselves on their profile.
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This week's POTW is from Sunny Southern California, his name is Rick Martin. Those of us who know Rick personally know him to be a person who is very generous with his time and resources. Often he is up really late at night helping people with what ever problem they may have, and after a few hours of sleep he heads off to work. He does this on daily basis. Rick is mentor to many as well as a friend. Rick, we appreciate so much what you do for us and you deserve more than just an award, you have our love and respect. Enjoy your week of praise you’ve more than earned it.
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Here’s Rick’s Bio:
Dear John and La Nell,
Thank you for your hard work and all you do for the Adland Pro Community. I am honored to be selected POTW and hope that I will be able to rise to the call.
I have enjoyed the AdlandPro Pro Community since September 6th 0f 2005. It has become my favorite stop on the web and hearty thanks goes to Bogdan and staff for putting us first in all that they do. The new POTW polling site is a real first class addition as well.
Family History
I was the first born of Dick & Barbara Martin in Seattle, Washington in Harborview Hospital on July 27, 1950. My mother was the first baby born there years earlier. My mother’s maiden name is Bullock and Sandra Bullock is a distant cousin on her uncle’s side of the family. I don’t even know her though. That’s as close to stardom as I have been until now.
One would say that I had a normal childhood up until I was in the third grade. My parents both worked many years at the Boeing Company, my dad was a crane operator and my mother was a mechanic in prototypes. They also operated a janitorial service in their off times. My father took on a sales job about this time and had done pretty well in that we moved to a new home just a few short miles from where Billy Gates now lives. As time began to wear on it became apparent that the company he was working for was in ill health and he took to the bottle. Finally the government put a lock on their door and as a result we were forced to move into the housing projects on the other end of town as my parents couldn’t meet the mortgage. This was the beginning of a trend.
Life in the project was pretty much ok. My dad went back to Boeing and resumed his janitorial services and we prospered. When I was twelve we took a trip to my aunt Roberta’s dairy farm in Sacramento where my brother Michael, sister Gloria and I stayed while my parents went on to Hollywood. They must have had a good time there as nine month’s later my sisters, Laura and Lana, where born. Two are always better, isn’t it? Thank God that we were in a three bedroom project house by then. My sister was nine by then and we had our daily routine, what with both parents working and twins to care for. On the other hand we were always well cared for and had our skating and music lessons each week. My first love was my figure skating partner Elaine Berg and we competed locally for two years together until my family moved to the Wallingford area on the other end of town, Knowing how first loves go you won’t be surprised to find out that she hooked up with a guy I went to high school with named Rocky Fultz.
I attended Hamilton Junior High and was active in the photography club and print shop. During my years there I became quite good at dark room work and photolithography in the print shop. My music studies continued as I was in the school band and orchestra and I started learning country western on the guitar and keyboard. For my 9th grade science I built a basic oscilloscope from chassis and parts I bought from the army navy surplus yard. I got the schematic out of an old radio amateur’s handbook and was really happy when it actually worked and I received an A plus second place in the science fair. All in all life was good for all of us and we were still prospering.
I attended Lincoln HS a shorter walk just three miles from home. Buy this time I had sold my clarinet to a friend and was hot and heavy into the rock band phase of my life. The parents were still working nights and we had practice at least five nights a week and I am sure that the surrounding neighborhood had as much of the “Full House” as they could stand when we disbanded. On the other hand the sisters from “Heart” lived around the corner. lol While attending Lincoln I put most of my effort into the electronics lab and automotive shop. On the other hand I did my student service in the library AV Department. I of course graduated and was honored to compete in the statewide Chrysler Plymouth Trouble Shooters Contest with a partner named Stan Hoenie. Our team had won state and gone on to win nationals the year before. Stan had to redo the timing times causing us to miss first place by 23 seconds. None the less we both got some money and a set of tools. After our graduation Stan enlisted in the Marine Corps and died a short time later having thrown himself over a land mine saving several of his comrades. “Good Morning Vietnam” was calling and I took the deferment to go to college and flight school in Moses Lake Washington where there was a B52 base at one time.
I attended Big Bend Community College the fall of 1969 and shared a room with a guy that drove in from Florida in his 1957 Corvette. (The chick magnet. lol) Colonel Wright ran a tight ship and we spent our time taking a full academic load as well as flying school. The goal was a commercial ticket with IFR rating in two years. I did learn to fly and soloed cross country but during the 2nd semester I injured my leg on the soccer field and couldn’t fly. That was the winter to end them all. It was 50 degrees below zero for days, the snow and ice didn’t go away for weeks. I took my recovery leave at home and built myself up a bit and joined the Marine Corps. Life is great but Vietnam was calling.
Well today is the end of week six at the USMC Recruit Depot, boot camp and the training regime had taken over my life. Half of the guys in my group were from Chicago and were given the choice of the Marine Corps or the Slammer. They were quite a rag tag group but in the end our platoons set all time records in boot. I can here the judge now saying, “What is there about prison you don’t understand son”, but it ended in death for many of them on their tour in Nam. I on the other hand served as a navigator on a C130 flying all over the east coast, Caribbean, Trinidad, Panama and Puerto Rico to name a few. My job was to tell the pilot where to go and I never did tell him to set course for Vietnam.
I reorganized the mechanical division of their civil aviation administration. We managed the power and transportations needs at our 47 airports within Zaire whose land masse is about the size of the USA west of the Mississippi River. My division numbered 360 employees that provide daily transport of the 2400 RVA employees. Mary Ann taught English to student at the Salvation Army School and to Air Zaire employees. She still works with the Salvation Army but is an accomplished lawyer in Olympia now. Apart from our jobs we lived in a 7000 square foot house with a pool and acreage where we hosted Peace Corps Volunteers returning from the interior to take a break or more likely handle medical needs. The house came with my position and was maintained by a staff of four. We had a spread of chickens and fruit trees in the yard. Normally speaking we had 2 to 6 guests at all times so it was really like an oasis in the jungle for them and the stories were incredible.
My most memorable moment was the birth of my daughter Veronica Malaika in the Danish Hospital over looking the Congo River at 4:00am on December 18th 1974 and the perfect Christmas present. Shortly there after our tour was over and off to Kenya and I took my family with me on safari in a VW bug. We went on to Athens, Greece, Bonn, Germany and a quick stopover in London and on to Seattle. In the Congo it really didn’t drop below 90 degrees so we were freezing and decided to race home to our families’ for warmth and comfort. After all there was a new grandchild to spoil. It being late May summer was soon to come at last. After setting up house keeping in Seattle I was hired to work for the FAA at Portland International Airport.
FAST FORWARD
Life has taken a number of turns for me and I am staring down the barrel of a 357 Magnum at a roadblock just east of Winslow, Arizona at 4am on February 21st 1979 its 30 degrees and clear. Officer Lester Short had motioned me forward and I had come to a stop in the illuminated area between two patrol cars and now I’m staring down the barrel of his gun. I hit the power window switch and the window is coming down as the gun fires. Time stands still as the window explodes from the muzzle blast with chards of glass flying past me and I see the bullet ripping its way through the plastic laminate of the glass on its way. The bullet strikes me in the lower jaw blowing away 7 teeth and fracturing it into four pieces and it continues on to rest lodged in a bundle of nerves next to my spine. I was picked up by the force and propelled into my girl friends lap.
Barbara Jean Coulter and I were cruising down the road in a new Thunderbird on our way to ski in Lake Tahoe when we came upon the road block that fateful night. The roadblock had been set up to snare an armed robber and unfortunately they had let the real culprits through when Lester’s gun went off accidentally changing our life’s course as the police chief then invents a cover up. This was accomplished by having Lester rewrite his report to say that he fired because I was trying to run him over it didn’t matter that several witnesses were on hand when Lester told the chief that his gun “just went off”. So there I was a government employee in a travel duty status returning from an FAA school and now I am charged with four felonies and two misdemeanors for robbing a Whiting Brothers truck stop of $ 4.00 and hitting the attendant John Penry over the head with a revolver. Sure!
This battle lasted 6 years as I had several surgeries, won the criminal case costing $ 55,000.00, at four years the insurance company offered their insurance limits of $ 350,000.00 and apologized for the city of Winslow for the obvious frame up, Chief Maule, Lt. Spinks and Lester were charged with 144 felony crimes in the cover up causing the chief to end his candidacy for mayor of Winslow and Barbara died of a self inflicted drug over dose. In the end it took over a million dollars to get chief Maule but he and officer Spinks went to jail. Lester turned evidence against them and plead guilty for which he got 5 years probation. There were also a number of other Winslow police that were charged on other crimes they committed while wearing the badge. My best advice would be to avoid Winslow. God really was watching over me.
My New Life
After the Winslow Case I relocated to Lancaster, California and have work as a HVAC technician throughout in the Los Angeles area. Most of my work has been industrial commercial buildings and a hand full of movie stars homes. I have been pretty successful in this and have managed several large jobs as well. On the family side of this I have been married three times and have raised 11 children and all have been brought up in their faith of God and have attended church as a family. My faith was the teachings by my mother and the Baptist Church as far back as I can remember. I am lucky as all of my family is active in the church. We have all taught on Sundays and Norm and I have been on a number of worship teams over the years. I am not perfect but god has always been there right beside me as he is now.
WOSAT
Presently I am the Executive VP of Wosat and I am very excited as we are readying for a world wide launch of our product, Dipetane. In essence we are all equal partners and are setting up distribution center in five locations around the globe. I am both humbled and thankful to God, Dr King and all of the Wosat team for their work and confidence in seeing our mission through. There isn’t an hour of the day that without some one or a team working towards this launch. We started with 168 candidates and are now about 68 dedicated hard working partners. This is only the beginning of my new life and I can’t wait to see where we will go next.
A special thanks goes to all of my friends, Dr King, Mark Kross, Kay Reeve and her husband Denis, Alice Whyte, Mike Ward, Tim Southernwood, Carla Cash, Luella May, Shannon Bolin and her husband Barry, John Sanchez, La Nell, Larry Anderson, Steven Reid and so many others.
Alas I spend most of my time online but I maintain a bit of truth.
Thank You,
Rick Martin
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What an incredible individual Rick is, I hope you’ve enjoyed his Bio. If he’s not on your friends list be sure to invite him to be your friend, we all need more friends like him.
Rick, Buddy, I consider you one of my best friends. Thank you so much for the kindness you’ve shown me and everyone here at AdlandPro and WOSAT. Take care my friend!
Love and blessings to all of you from,
John Sanchez and LaNell
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John Sanchez
My Blogs
Goodwill Ambassador
WOSAT-Looking for a few committed individuals.
If I’m not on your friends list please invite me!