Lieutenant Colonel André (Andy) R. Martel. U. S. Army (Retired)
Andy Martel served for over 21 years in the United States Army, retiring in 1990 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He enlisted in 1969, attended Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in Army Military Intelligence in Jul1970. Initially serving with the Army Security Agency, Andy held company-level command positions at Fort Meade, Maryland in 1973 and the ASA Field Station in Pyeongtaek, South Korea in 1974. After attending the Army Military Intelligence Officer Advanced Course, a European tour followed where he served on the VII Corps G-2 Staff as the Signal Security Officer in Stuttgart, FRG and as the Operations Officer S-3 of the 502nd Military Intelligence Battalion in Augsburg, FRG. He returned to serve as a senior instructor at the Army Military Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca, Arizona and then attended Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1983. After being stationed at the National Security Agency, serving on the Director’s staff, he was transferred to the Pentagon where he assumed the duties of Deputy Chief of Staff for the Army Intelligence Agency. Throughout his service, Andy received several awards, including the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and others.
Following his retirement, Andy continued to serve the Army as a project manager for the Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) at Fort Belvoir. Beginning in 1992, Andy was employed with the Lockheed Martin Corporation, initially as a systems analyst for mainframe operations. He then served Lockheed Martin as the Facility Manager for the Lanham, Maryland site, dedicated to 7×24 information processing on behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Andy retired in March 2017 after 25 years with Lockheed Martin and LEIDOS.
Andy joined AMVETS in 1995. Since then, he has served as the Post Commander of Post 115 twice and held several Department of Maryland positions, including serving as the Department Commander in 2002-2003 and as the National District II Commander in 2011-2012, overseeing the AMVETS region encompassing the states of Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina as well as the District of Columbia. Andy was named the Department of Maryland AMVET of the Year for 2001-2002 and has continued his active participation in that organization. Andy is currently the Executive Director for the Department of Maryland AMVETS, a position he has held since August 2003. He continues to hold several National-level AMVETS positions on a variety of committees. Andy has served on the Joint Veterans Committee of Maryland since 2002 and was elected Chairman of the JVC for the 2014-2015 term.
Andy also serves as a commissioner on the Prince Georges’ County Commission for Veterans and is a member of the Governor-appointed State of Maryland Military Monuments Commission and the State Veterans Commission. He is a lifetime member of American Veterans (AMVETS), the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), the Catholic War Veterans (CWV), and the Disabled American Veterans.
Andy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maine with a major in Political Science and a Master of Arts degree from Central Michigan University in Management and Administration.
Andy and his wife, Carolyn, have been married for 50 years and have three children: Renee Tripp of Sykesville, Tina Lynn Pavlish and her husband Sean of Laurel, and Chad Martel and his wife Melissa of Crofton. Andy and Carolyn have five grandchildren: Matthew, Jacob, Brendan, Katelyn, and Jordan and two great-grandchildren: Landon and Maclin. They have been residents of Bowie, Maryland since their arrival to this area in 1983.