SOWF Ambassadors

Colonel Joe Martin is a U.S. Army Special Forces officer—a Green Beret—with deployments to Afghanistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Honduras, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Russia, and Bulgaria. His career highlights include serving as a Congressional Fellow for the United States Senate Majority Leader and as Legislative Liaison for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. He is an inductee into the U.S. Army ROTC Hall of Fame.

Colonel Martin held roles including Chief of Staff for the Deputy Director for Special Operations on the Joint Staff; liaison officer for a joint special operations task force in Afghanistan; and assistant operations officer with Special Operations Command Central in Qatar. His command assignments included the United States Army Parachute Team, “The Golden Knights”; the United States Military Free Fall School and Special Operations Terminal Attack Controller Course; serving as a founding member of the Special Operations Preparation and Conditioning Course; and Special Forces Operational Detachment-Alpha 773.

Colonel Martin is an author, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He authored Get Selected for Special Forces, and has been published in Infantry Magazine, Jihad Watch, and Red State. He is a life member of the Special Forces Association, U.S. Army Ranger Association, and Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association.

Colonel Martin has donated over half a million dollars to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) which provides college scholarships and educational counseling for the surviving children of fallen Special Operations personnel and Medal of Honor recipients. Honored as SOWF’s 2008 Volunteer of the Year, he serves as an SOWF Ambassador and is a member of their Eagle Claw Society.

A Distinguished Military Graduate of Canisius College with a Bachelor of Science in Management, Colonel Martin also holds a Master of Science in National Resource Strategy from the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2017 after more than 26 years of service.