SALT LAKE CITY — A U.S. naval pilot has arrived at his final resting place in Salt Lake City, more than eight decades after he was killed in action during World War II.
The emotional internment of the remains of Ensign Howard Holding was held Friday at the Salt Lake City Cemetery, with the University of Utah graduate receiving full military honors.
An accomplished musician who loved Glenn Miller, Holding was killed in action in a remote part of the South Pacific in September 1944. Flying his F6 Hellcat, Holding was shot down during combat operations over what was then called Yap, now Micronesia. His remains were believed to have been lost forever.
“Peace and joy, better late than never!” said Holding's nephew, Brent Jacob.
It was a day many of Holding's relatives thought might never come.
“...it also is joy, because now he’s home," added Terri Trick, Holding's niece. "And here he is, so I don’t know, mixed emotions? A feeling of tragedy and also a feeling of intense joy.”
After the war, a local Yap villager directed naval units to the remains of four unknown airmen. Those remains were transferred to a military grave in the Philippines, where they remained unidentified.
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A private organization called the Missing Air Crew Project believed one set of those remains belongs to Holding. Over the summer, DNA testing confirmed the hunch.
Holding's casket landed in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, something his niece, Trick, was not expecting.
“I could not stop thinking of my mother or my grandmother all day on Wednesday, and I’m thinking of them still today," she said.
So, 81 years after Howard‘s death, he is finally home.
“It is a profound reminder of the cost of war and the importance of never forgetting those who gave their lives," said Patrick Ranfranz of the Missing Air Crew Project.
The project continues to make trips to the South Pacific in hopes of identifying the remains of other airmen who were lost in action during World War II.
