Nojko Marinović was born in 1948 in the village of Bruška, near to Benkovac. He is one of four children and because of the possibility of receiving a scholarship, he was sent to Military Academy from 1967 to 1971. He was posted to the islands of Lastovo and Korčula, and later to Trebinje, a town that was then a part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and after the war in the 1990s became a part of Republika Srpska. He stayed in Trebinje from 1982 until the beginning of the war in 1991, as the Commander of the Trebinje military garrison. On September 20, by secret channels, he left Trebinje and took over the defence of Dubrovnik, which was, at the time, extremely weak in terms of both manpower and arms. He was seriously injured on March 19, 1992. After that, General Janko Bobetko took over the command of the defence of Dubrovnik. After recovering, Nojko Marinović returned to the battlefield as the Deputy Commander. On May 25, 1992 the breaking of the blockade of Dubrovnik started, and on October 22, 1992 the Croatian Army reached the border with Montenegro. Nojko Marinović saw the end of the war with 90% invalidity. Today he is retired and he lives in Dubrovnik.