Overview
- Holding was interred Friday at Salt Lake City Cemetery with full military honors as sailors served as pallbearers and a 21-gun salute concluded the service.
- The U.S. Navy pilot was lost on Sept. 6, 1944, during a VF-20 mission over Yap Island while flying an F6F Hellcat from USS Enterprise.
- An Enterprise After Action Report noted the planes may have collided or been struck by anti-aircraft fire almost simultaneously, and no parachutes were seen.
- Research by Patrick Ranfranz and the Missing Air Crew Project traced Holding to an unknown grave in the American cemetery in the Philippines, prompting DPAA exhumation and DNA testing confirmed in summer 2025.
- Family members described long-sought closure as his casket arrived in Salt Lake City this week, and the Missing Air Crew Project continues searches for other WWII airmen in the South Pacific.