Jack Holder was born in December 1921 in his mother’s hometown of Gunter, Texas. His father was a World War 1 veteran, and he moved the family to Newcastle [Annotator’s Note: Newcastle, Texas] where he worked as a farmer 365 acres of land. During the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], life was difficult, but there was always enough food to eat because his father was able to produce it. They lived in a four-room shack that his father built. There was no electricity, no running water, no telephone, and no indoor plumbing. They used Sears-Roebuck catalogs for toilet paper and used kerosene lamps to light the house. It was all work and no money. He walked a mile to elementary school, and when he went to high school, he rode in a Ford truck with canvas covering the windows. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewer paused interview to adjust camera at 0:03:25.000.] In April 1940, Holder joined the Navy after graduating from high school at 18 years old. He became interested in the Navy when he saw some very nice pictures at school, which caught his eye. He had no desire to be a farmer and convinced his mother to sign the papers. His father, being a World War 1 veteran, understood what Holder wanted to do. Holder’s father was in a machine gun squad and spent one year crawling through the mud in France. He enlisted in Wichita Falls [Annotator’s Note: Wichita Falls, Texas], then boarded a train that took him to San Diego [Annotator’s Note: San Diego, California] for boot camp.

In April 1940, Jack Holder enlisted in the Navy and completed bootcamp in San Diego, California. Boot camp was strenuous, but it turned him into a man. When he first arrived at the Naval Station, he was examined by a doctor who diagnosed him with appendicitis. He was taken to a naval hospital and spent one month there. During boot camp, he spent a lot of time swimming, marching, and boxing. He washed his own clothes and ate meals. Holder always wanted to fly and was inspired by his uncle who flew crop planes over fields. He applied and was granted a four-month course at the aviation machinist’s mate school in San Diego. After he completed the course, he was assigned to the USS Platte (AO-24) which was a tanker. The ship sailed to Pearl Harbor [Annotator’s Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. He was taken to Ford Island [Annotator’s Note: Ford Island, Hawaii] and assigned to a PBY [Annotator’s Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina seaplane] squadron, VP-26, [Annotator’s Note: Patrol Squadron 26 (VP-26)] and eventually became the plane captain, also known as the flight engineer. He was in awe of the beauty of Hawaii.

On 7 December 1941, Jack Holder was on duty at Ford Island, [Annotator’s Note: Ford Island, Hawaii]. His unit was in a hangar. The section leader had just started roll call when the first bomb dropped. Everyone ran outside to see what had happened in the explosion. When the first bomb fell at Pearl Harbor, it fell about 100 yards from the hangar. He saw all the Japanese aircraft with the rising sun insignia and knew exactly what had happened. A friend told him to take cover in a nearby ditch. Holder can still clearly see the face of the Japanese pilot who shot at him and his fellow shipmates as they hid in a sewer ditch. When he came out of the ditch, he and others began to take inventory of non-damaged equipment. He was then instructed by his commanding officer to go into the hangar and get his aircraft ready for flight. His commanding officer and crew took the plane and searched 19 hours for the Japanese but found nothing. [Annotator’s Note: Phone rings at 0:15:30.000. Video break at 0:15:37.000.] Holder recalled looking at Battleship Row where several ships were on fire, but the most devastating thing he witnessed was seeing seamen covered in oil and on fire and jumping into the water. Immediately after the attack, Pearl Harbor was put under martial law. The military began setting up defenses around the island. Holder was given duty for three days and nights at one defensive station. Everyone was on their toes, scared that the Japanese were going to return. Four days after the attack, he was allowed back to his barracks, and saw that all the lockers were opened, and white clothing had been taken for bandages. He was given a postcard to send to his parents to say that he was okay. Holder was assigned to complete security flights around the island, until he was deployed to the Battle of Midway [Annotator’s Note: Battle of Midway, 4–7 June 1942]. Holder explained that in retaliation, the first American offense was the Doolittle Raid [Annotator's Note: bombing attack on the Japanese mainland on 18 April 1942 carried out by 16 North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) and named for the raid's commander, then US Army Air Forces Colonel, later US Air Force General, James H. Doolittle] on Tokyo [Annotator’s Note: Tokyo, Japan].

After the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Jack Holder participated in the Battle of Midway [Annotator’s Note: The Battle of Midway, 4 to 7 June 1942] as a PBY [Annotator’s Note: Consolidated PBY Catalina] pilot. Holder’s squadron [Annotator’s Note: Patrol Squadron 23 (VP-23)]participated in the patrols searching for the Japanese invasion force expected from intercepted radio traffic. The first sightings occurred on 3 June 1942 and led to the Battle of Midway. The first two hours of the battle were bad for the Americans, but the tide soon turned, and the Americans began to pull ahead. Holder continued to scout for Japanese enemies. He spotted a submarine and dropped torpedoes on the ship, and watched it sink. After the Battle of Midway, his squadron went out looking for downed seamen. He found two sailors in a life raft. The sailors were picked up and taken to Midway. Holder flew back to Pearl Harbor and had a five day leave at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. On 2 July 1942, he was given orders to head to Guadalcanal [Annotator’s Note: Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands].

On 2 July 1942, Jack Holder [Annotator’s Note: serving with Patrol Squadron 23 (VP-23)] was deployed to Noumea, New Caledonia to support the invasion Guadalcanal [Annotator's Note: Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal, codenamed Operation Watchtower; 7 August 1942 to 9 February 1943; Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands]. Tender support was provided by the USS Curtiss (AV-4). For the first two months of the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Americans were losing until Admiral Halsey [Annotator's Note: US Navy Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey] replaced the lackluster Admiral Ghormley [Annotator’s Note: Vice Admiral Robert Lee Ghormley, Commander of the South Pacific Area]. Halsey moved Holder’s squadron forward to Espiritu Santo. Holder believed that the morale of the servicemen began to change after Halsey took over command. For several months, Holder and his squadron combed the area searching for Japanese cargo ships. In 1943, he received permission to go back to San Diego [Annotator’s Note: San Diego, California] to help commission a new PBY squadron and then returned to the Pacific. However, when he reached San Diego, his orders were changed. He trained for two months on a B-24 Liberator [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. Then in April 1943, he was assigned to VPB-103 [Annotator’s Note: Patrol Bombing Squadron 103 (VPB-103)] and sent to RAF [Annotator’s Note: Royal Air Force] Dunkeswell in Devonshire, England for 15 months patrolling the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay. He flew 56 missions over the English Channel. While he flew the B-24, he was the flight engineer and top turret gunner. The weather was different than when he flew in the Pacific. He had to wear electric suits that only sometimes worked. He had to wear the RAF uniform with the American flag sewn on. Holder often wondered if his luck would run out and if it was going to be his last flight. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewer adjusts camera at 0:45:00.000.] There were many close calls for him while he patrolled the English Channel, but he tried not to dwell on it. He worked with an 11-man crew on the B-24.

Jack Holder [Annotator’s Note: serving with Patrol Bombing Squadron 103 (VPB-103)] flew missions across the English Channel for 15 months during World War 2. His most memorable missions were when he came out of a cloud and an ME-109 [Annotator’s Note: The Messerschmitt Bf 109] was passing in front of him. Holder did not have too much to do during his time off. He had a seven-day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] in London [Annotator’s Note: London, England]. Just before the invasion of France [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], he was transferred back to Virginia in the United States to help commission a new squadron of B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber]. However, Holder instead remained on the base and was assigned as a flight engineer for one year. He was then transferred to Pensacola, Florida for a year, flying PBY-2s [Annotator’s Note: Consolidated PB2Y Coronado]. He was then transferred to Maryland and flew DC-4s [Annotator’s Note: Douglas DC-4] for over a year, and was then discharged on 24 April 1948. [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 0:56.00.000.] When the war ended in Europe [Annotator’s Note: 8 May 1945], he was stationed in Pensacola, Florida. It was a joyous day for him. There was a vast difference between the Germans and the Japanese. The Japanese fighters enjoyed the cruelty. The Germans tried to follow the articles of war. After experiencing the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Holder wanted revenge for his country. He was shocked when he learned that he was transferred from the Pacific war to the war in Europe, but he did what he was ordered to do.

Jack Holder was ready to be discharged from the Navy because he had gotten married. He went to school and received a flight engineer rating. In 1950, he moved to Los Angeles [Annotator’s Note: Los Angeles, California] and worked in the aircraft business. He was then asked to join a charter plane company as the flight engineer, and eventually got his flight license. He then found job as a corporate pilot. To his dismay, he quit flying because his wife did not want him to fly anymore and he found a job as an engineer at Allied Signal, today known as Intel for 20 years. [Annotator’s Note: Phone rings at 1:08:17.000.] He spent five years in England for his job.

Jack Holder did not talk about his World War 2 experiences until recently. He booked a trip to New York on an Arizona Honor Flight [Annotator's Note: a national network of independent Hubs working together to honor our nation's veterans with an all-expenses paid trip to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to visit the war memorials] and the tarmac was full of people lined up to greet him and the rest of the veterans. Since then, he has been giving presentations about his World War 2 experiences. He thinks it is necessary to keep World War 2 history alive, especially for younger generations. It is knowledge they need in order to avoid another world war. Americans need to respect the American flag and love their country. America is not always right, but it is the greatest country in the world. Holder’s most memorable experience of World War 2 was when he spotted the Japanese near Midway [Annotator’s Note: Midway, Hawaiian Islands] and reported it to his lead commander. He feels nice to be part of an integral event in history. He fought in World War 2 because he loved his country and signed an oath when he joined the Navy. The war vastly changed his life. He grew up on a farm and was glad that he did not have to return to that life. He is proud to have served and done his part. Holder believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because people need to know what America went through. He believes that the men fighting could not have won without the help of the home front.