Again, going through an old issue of the World War II magazine, I came across the announcement of the death of Holmes, July 23, 2006, who had participated in the long-range mission that killed Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
On Dec. 7, 1941, Col. Holmes was at a church in Honolulu nursing a hangover he had gotten two-days earlier on his 24th birthday, when he heard the bombs going off. Still dressed in his brown pin-stripe suit, he rushed to his Curtiss P-36 and managed to take off and engage the Japanese planes, but did not shoot any down.
Later in the war, he flew Bell P-39s and Curtiss P-40s during Guadalcanal. Later he was assigned P-38G Lightning.
In April 1943, intelligence was received that Admiral Yamamoto was going to visit Kahili Airfield on Bougainville Island. Holmes always claimed it was his suggestion that got the staff of Admiral Halsey to take the 400-mile mission. Holmes flew one of the sixteen P-38s that succeeded in downing Yamamoto.
The Greatest Generation. --DaCoot
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