2/22/2010:
On this date in 1944, James and Esther Holm were blessed with the birth of a son. From an early age, Skip, as he was known, became increasingly interested in flying, whether a result of a small beanie with a propeller on top that he constantly wore or from watching the eagles and hawks soar noiselessly above the family homestead in southwestern Stark County. As he grew, he marveled at the airplanes that flew overhead and he knew that he wanted to be a pilot. At the age of eighteen, he got his first chance to fly in a neighbor's airplane, but the flight ended with engine failure and a forced landing, hardly a stellar beginning to what would become a distinguished forty-plus-year career in aviation.
With the Vietnam War escalating and the implementation of the draft, Skip entered the United States Air Force on October 15, 1966 and began his flight training in the F-105 Thunderchief at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas in November of 1967. By June of 1968 he found himself in the back of a C-130 cargo plane headed for Bangkok, Thailand to join the 388th Tactical Fighter wing based at Korat.
Skip Holm would serve three tours of duty in Vietnam and would amass more combat hours than any fighter pilot in history, accumulating 1,171 hours in 352 total missions. What is even more impressive is that almost half of these hours were logged in 163 combat missions in the F-105, which had a low survival rate. Almost 60% of the six hundred F-105 "Thud" fighter-bombers flown in the Vietnam War were lost. The F-105 was designed in 1951 with a narrow wing span to fly low and fast to deliver a nuclear warhead. This narrow wing span resulted in a slow turning radius, making the Thud inferior in a dogfight; however, with a 6000 pound bomb load, enhanced firepower and their unprecedented speed, they flew more combat missions over North Vietnam than any other aircraft.
Skip recounted that his favorite mission was when he sent a rocket propelled bomb through the door of a Pagoda filled with enemy ammunition and blew the roof off. He got some great pictures of it, one of which he sent home to his father, signing it, "Happy Easter."
For his tours in Vietnam, Skip Holm would earn three Distinguished Flying Crosses, an Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, twenty-five Air Combat Medals, an Air Force Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Ribbon, Combat Ready Medal and seven Vietnam Service Medals, among others. But Vietnam marked only the beginning of his career, as we'll hear tomorrow.
Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis
http://www.skipholm.com/biography.htm
Stark County Heritage and Destiny, Taylor Publishing Company, 1978
Register of North Dakota Veterans, Vietnam Conflict, 1964-1973; North Dakota Adjutant General's Office 1981