HOLMES, FREDERICK L.
Name: Frederick L. Holmes
Rank/Branch: USN, O4
Unit:
Date of Birth: 19 December 36
Home City of Record: Morgan Hill, CA
Date of Loss: 30 December 71
Country of Loss: North Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 184500N 1055000E
Status (in 1973): Missing
Category: 3
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: A6A
Other Personnel In Incident: Lt. Burton (rescued)
Source: Compiled by THE P.O.W. NETWORK 02 February 93 from the following
published sources - POW/MIA's -- Report of the Select Committee on POW/MIA
Affairs United States Senate -- January 13, 1993. "The Senate Select
Committee staff has prepared case summaries for the priority cases that the
Administration is now investigating. These provide the facts about each
case, describe the circumstances under which the individual was lost, and
detail the information learned since the date of loss. Information in the
case summaries is limited to information from casualty files, does not
include any judgments by Committee staff, and attempts to relate essential
facts. The Committee acknowledges that POW/MIAs' primary next-of- kin know
their family members' cases in more comprehensive detail than summarized
here and recognizes the limitations that the report format imposes on these
summaries."
On December 30, 1971, Lieutenant Commander Holmes and his co-pilot,
Lieutenant Burton, were the lead A-6 aircraft in a strike mission over North
Vietnam. Their aircraft was observed to take a direct hit from a surface to
air missile. Lieutenant Burton was wounded, blown clear of the aircraft and
his parachute deployed successfully. Another aircraft on the scene reported
seeing two good chutes deploy, but this report was later viewed as not
confirmed. A search and rescue aircraft then reported both pilots in sight
and in the water off Hon Nieu Island. Lieutenant Burton was rescued by U.S.
forces. SAR forces located a pilot's ejection seat and life raft possibly
belonging to Lieutenant Commander Holmes but were unable to locate either
him or his chute in an area with a large number of North Vietnamese sampans.
A Radio Hanoi broadcast referenced this incident, one of several U.S.
aircraft losses on the same date in the southern part of North Vietnam.
While some pilots were reported captured alive, Lieutenant Commander Holmes'
name was not identified among those captured. One returning POW recognized
Lieutenant Commander Holmes' name but no returning POWs ever reported him
alive in the northern Vietnamese prison system.
In April 1975 Lieutenant Commander Holmes case was submitted for a casualty
review at the request of his next of kin. He was declared dead/body not
recovered.
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