Alpo Kullervo Marttinen (4 November 1908 – 20 December 1975) was a
Finnish-American
Finnish Americans ( fi, amerikansuomalaiset, ) comprise Americans with ancestral roots from Finland or Finnish people who immigrated to and reside in the United States. The Finnish-American population numbers a little bit more than 650,000. ...
colonel.
[Alpo Marttinen biography]
(in Finnish). Retrieved 4 July 2013. During
World War II he served in the
Finnish Army. Following the war he immigrated to the United States and served as an officer in the
United States Army, retiring as a colonel.
Marttinen was one of the key figures in the
Weapons Cache Case where a large number of Finnish Army weapons were hidden around the country in case of a
Soviet invasion. Soldiers involved in this case were forced to leave Finland since hiding weapons was a criminal act due to the 1944
Moscow Armistice. These soldiers, who mostly fled to
United States and enlisted in the US Army, were later called as "Marttinen's men".
Marttinen first fled to Sweden in 1945 with the help of his former subordinate officer
. A year later Marttinen and his family moved to the United States, where he was given citizenship in 1951. He served in the US Army from 1947 to 1968, first as a specialist and instructor of winter warfare and later as a
General Staff Officer
A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...
in the United States,
West Germany, and
South Korea. Marttinen spent the last three years of his career as a
Military advisor in
Iran. He also was a graduate of the
US Army Command and General Staff College (1950) and the
US Army War College
The United States Army War College (USAWC) is a U.S. Army educational institution in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500-acre (2 km2) campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks. It provides graduate-level instruction to senior military officer ...
(1963).
[
Marttinen died on the 20th of December, 1975, at Falls Church, Virginia, and was buried at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery. He had three sons. His oldest, Pekka Marttinen (1933–1958), served as a lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment and was killed in a gunnery explosion in ]Grafenwöhr
Grafenwöhr (, Northern Bavarian: ''Groafawehr'') is a town in the district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab, in the region of the Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz) in eastern Bavaria, Germany. It is widely known for the United States Army militar ...
, Germany.[H.A. Gill III, "Soldier Under Three Flags – The Exploits of Special Forces Captain Larry A. Thorne", pp. 191–92.]
Awards
Finland:
* Mannerheim Cross
United States:
*Legion of Merit
The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight ...
* Army Commendation Medal
* Army Good Conduct Medal
* National Defense Service Medal
References
Further reading
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marttinen, Alpo K.
1908 births
1975 deaths
People from Tornio
People from Oulu Province (Grand Duchy of Finland)
Finnish military personnel of World War II
Knights of the Mannerheim Cross
Finnish emigrants to the United States
United States Army colonels
United States Army Command and General Staff College alumni
Officers of the Legion of Merit