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Viewing 11 items in the Francis W. Holden collection

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Fran Holden

Francis W. "Fran" Holden joined the Army Air Force Reserves at age 17, attending basic training at Keesler Field in Biloxi, Mississippi (May 1943). He was assigned to the 54th College Training Detachment at Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio (June 1943). After several months there, he went on to classification at the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center in San Antonio, Texas (August 1943). He was classified to be a navigator/bombardier and then went on to preflight training at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas (October 1943).

His next assignment was advanced navigation training at San Marcos, Texas (December 1943), where he received his commission as 2nd Lieutenant and earned his navigator wings. From there he went on to Roswell Army Air Field in Roswell, New Mexico (May 1944). He received his bombardier/bombigator wings and finally became a bombigator instructor at Carlsbad, New Mexico (July 1944).

He wanted to fight not teach, so he requested to be transferred to combat crew training at Hunter Field (September 1944). He went to the Pacific Theater as a member of the 13th Air Force, 42nd Bomb Group, 390th Bombardment Squadron. As squadron leader in navigation, he earned the Air Medal twice and contributed to his unit receiving a Presidential Unit Citation. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant.

When the war ended, he returned to the US and received an honorable discharge (January 1946).

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	Image	TitleAA DD EE JJ LL RR SS WW
1		Army Life Yearbook Excerpt, 54th College Training Detachment, Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio Excerpt from a college yearbook describing the 54th College Training Detachment at Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio.
2		Diploma of Francis W. Holden 54th College Training Detachment, Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio Diploma of Francis W. Holden at the 54th College Training Detachment, Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio.
3		Dodo Diary 54th College Training Detachment, Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio Pictorial of the 54th College Training Detachment at Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio
4		Ellington Field Pictorial of Ellington Field, Ellington, Texas Pictorial booklet of Ellington Field, Ellington, Texas.
5		Jungle Air Force Celebrates V-J Thirteenth Air Force pictorial of victory celebrations Celebratory pictorial of the Thirteenth Air Force after victory over Japan.
6		Letters of Francis Holden Examples of Letterheads from Various Air Fields Letters home written by Francis Holden between 1942 and 1944, illustrating the stationery and letterheads from various air fields.
7		Recall Class book for the 54th College Training Detachment, Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio Class book for the 54th College Training Detachment at Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio.
8		Salvo! Volume 01, Number 45, Roswell Army Flying School, Roswell, New Mexico Base magazine for the advanced flying school at Roswell Army Air Field, Roswell, New Mexico.
9		Wittenberg College and The War-Training Program 54th College Training Detachment, Question and Answer Question and answer sheet for the 54th College Training Detachment at Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio.
10		Wittenberg College Army Training School 54th College Training Detachment, Community Recognition Day program Community Recognition Day Procession for the 54th College Training Detachment at Wittenberg College, Sprinfield, Ohio.
11		Wittenberg College Army Training School 54th College Training Detachment, Religious Resource Religious information from the 54th College Training Detachment at Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio.

New: Items added or revised in the last 30 days.
	Series: Different items with the same title.		Copies: Identical items, with different attributes.		Collection: A group of related items.

Curator: Mike Voisin

All items in the Army Air Forces Collection are licensed by Mike Voisin under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Revised: January 11, 2023