By Michelle Hannah
Aviation Division
Our Veteran of the Month is a humble, unassuming, gracious gentleman, 84 years young with no intent of slowing down. He runs his own lawn mower repair shop in town, visits his wife daily at the retirement center and keeps company with the “Wise men” at the Lockhart Municipal Airport. And oh, did I mention, he flies at least weekly in his Experimental RV 6A that he built?
Additionally, he’s a member of the New Braunfels EAA Chapter and attends the monthly fly ins there and at LaGrange for the bar-b-que and pancakes …. no $100 hamburgers for Tom Holland! But, more talk about food later. Tom was one of the first students to get his pilot’s license at Lockhart when the airport was just a patch of grass. His love for flying didn’t take a hold of him until after the war when some veterans at that time wouldn’t even consider another airplane ride.
Tom was 22 years old when he was “selected” as he likes to recall, by the U.S. Army Air Corps and was initially trained as an office clerk. Naturally, he did what any bored young man would do at that time and volunteered to train as a gunner and mechanic which virtually guaranteed him combat duty. Sergeant Tom Holland was assigned as a B-17 tail gunner with the 447th Bomber Group. Tom and his crew were laid over in Greenland for a few days with fog and bad weather when they received orders to fly to the British Isles on D-Day. There, Tom was reassigned to the Hoyer Crew and received orders to fly his fourth mission on June 11th, 1944. The Hoyer Crew had reached their target in Germany at l 0:00 a.m. when their B-17 was hit by flak, caught on fire and exploded at 25,000 feet. Lt. Charles Pearson, bombardier at the front of the plane was blown out of the plane and Tom jumped from the rear. They were the only survivors of the l 0-man crew. Miraculously, Tom was unharmed. He remembers only that it was cold when he jumped out, but not much more. Both men were immediately captured by the Germans, but he credits the German soldiers for saving them from the civilians. Did I mention the irony yet? His German captor, Tom recently learned, was later assigned to the Russian front where he was captured and a P.O.W. until 1948, three years longer than Tom served. Chock that up to bad karma, but that’s an understatement.
Tom’s initial P.O.W. camp was located in Poland where conditions were harsh. He survived the infamous l Oo-day march to Germany and relied on his bunk mate, Floyd, to pool and share food. Once he traded his wrist watch for o large loaf of bread and 6 eggs. And, they thought they had food for at least three days between them, but when they sat down to eat one egg each, it was more than they could resist and ate them all.
Tom was 23-years old when finally on April 16, 1945, the British liberated the prisoners at his German camp, Stalag 357. I asked Tom what that day was like. He said it was, of course, a happy day and then he remarked, “They brought us a lot of food!” Floyd returned to Missouri and he and Tom have maintained their friendship to this day.
Tom asked that I not make a “big thing” out of his story. I’ll try not to embellish on being blown out of a plane at 25,000 feet or his hiking trip from Poland to Germany through the snow, sleeping in barns along the way. Last April was Tom’s 61st anniversary of being liberated from captivity. He and his buddy Floyd are amazed and very appreciative of their longevity. I’d like to say thanks to Tom and our other friends like Floyd for their service to us Americans, but most of all for surviving! Oh, and if it’s not too late, happy belated 23rd birthday Tom Holland!
