North Texas survivor of Pearl Harbor attack dies at 101

Jack Holder, a Pearl Harbor survivor, decorated during World War II and flown over 100 missions in the Pacific and European theaters, has died in Arizona. He was 101 years old.

Darlene Tryon, a close friend and executor of Holder’s estate, said he died Friday at a hospital in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. The Pearl Harbor National Memorial also announced the death. Holder was born into a farming family in Gunter, Texas and joined the Navy in 1940 when he was 18 years old.

He was on duty at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Oahu, when Japanese aircraft bombed the US naval base on December 7, 1941.

“The first bomb that dropped on Pearl Harbor was about 100 yards away from me,” Holder said, adding that he “saw guys floating in burning oil in the water.”

Holder recalled diving into a ditch to avoid being shot.

Hiding behind a sandbag fortress, “I wondered if this was the day I would die,” Holder told the Arizona Republic in 2016. “That morning I watched the Japanese dive bombers devastate Pearl Harbor. I knew that we would no longer sit on the sidelines of the war that was devastating Europe.”

Holder said that after the attack, he spent three agonizing days in a makeshift machine gun pit, a moat lined with sandbags.

About 2,400 military personnel died in the attack on Pearl Harbor that dragged the US into World War II. The USS Arizona alone lost 1,177 sailors and marines, nearly half of the total death toll.

Holder continued to fight at the Battle of Midway and flew missions over Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands before being transferred to England and flying missions along the French coast and the English Channel.

The Pearl Harbor National Memorial states that Holder was awarded two Distinguished Flying Cross medals, six Air Medals, a Presidential Commendation and six Commendation Medals during his career in the Navy before being honorably discharged in 1948.

Holder then flew 25 years as a corporate and commercial pilot, took up golf, and moved to a retirement community in Arizona. According to Tryon, he also became an avid World War II educator and regularly attended Pearl Harbor commemorations as well as museums and schools.

In December 2021, a non-profit company took Holder on an honorary flight from Falcon Field in Mesa to celebrate his 100th birthday. When asked at an event to share his secret to a long life, Holder said: “Good exercise for the heart and two shots of whiskey and soda every night.”

Holder was also among 63 WWII veterans. which were delivered to Hawaii in December 2021. to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“I give presentations all over the country. I have been doing this for the last 11 years. All the young guys and all the adults,” Holder told NBC 5 at the time.

Tryon said a memorial service for Holder is scheduled in Phoenix in early April and he will later be buried at Arlington National Cemetery near the nation’s capital.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs does not have statistics on how many Pearl Harbor survivors are still alive.