Excerpts from obituary published in San Diego Union-Tribune on 5/11/2012:
CDR Martin Charles Voves, a career naval officer and a gentleman all his life, was born on June 1, 1925, in Wahpeton, North Dakota. After graduating from Wahpeton High School in 1943, he joined the Navy's V-5 Aviation Cadet Program. Following studies for one semester at Saint Mary's College in Wynona, Minnesota, he transferred to Saint Mary's College in Moraga Valley, California. There he received flight instruction in addition to his College studies. His first duty station was NAS North Island, serving with VF-131. After that tour he returned to college for an additional year and then to active duty in June 1951. He reported to the Fleet All Weather Training Unit, at NAS, Barber's Point, Hawaii. From there he was stationed with the Advanced Training Command to serve with ATU-203. CDR Voves had over 4000 hours in many types of naval aircraft.
He was awarded the World War II Victory Medal, the American Theater Medal, the China Service Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Navy Unit Citation, Vietnam Service Medal, American Campaign Medal, Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross and the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. Additionally he holds a B.S. degree from the University of Maryland which he completed in 1964. After thirty years of distinguished service, CDR Voves retired on July 1, 1973. At his decommissioning it was noted that he served as Target Systems Division Officer, where, under his guidance, many major advances in the airborne target arena were made. Among these were the development and introduction for service use of the Supersonic Firebee, spectacular improvements in miss distance measurement, the initial development successes of the new integrated Target Control System, and highly valuable projections and analyses of threat simulation requirements of the future.
CDR Voves died peacefully after a long battle with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease on May 4, 2012.
