Lt. Frank J. Holden

Lt. Frank Joseph Holden was the first serviceman from Tenafly to be killed in World War II.

Lt. Holden was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., on January 10, 1917.   His father brought the family to live at 219 Jefferson Avenue.  Family members remember him as a "very quiet person who, when he had something to say, would say it", frequently taking "the opposite side".  At T. H. S. he was a member of the National Honor Society, and the 1935 Tenakin quotes him as saying: "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the best of men."

After graduation, Lt. Holden went on to Rutgers University where he majored in chemistry and was a member of the R.O.T.C. The year 1939 found him with a degree but with little chance of meaningful employment in his field.  So he enlisted in the U. S. Marine Corps.  He earned his wings as a fighter pilot in Pensacola, Florida.  He was stationed for a time on the aircraft carrier Enterprise, then sent to Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands. and later to Wake Island, a small atoll north of the Marshall Islands.

On December 7. 1941. Pearl Harbor was bombed.  A few hours later enemy planes struck Wake Island.  Lt. Holden was killed while running across a field to his airplane.

Memorial Day observances in 1942 took on an added poignancy in the community.  Lt. Holden's mother was unable to attend, but a committee presented a gold cross to her at her home later in the day.

Twenty-seven years later, Specialist First Class John Curtin III, Lt. Holden's nephew, lost his life in Vietnam.

Text adapted from David R. Wall's Mount Carmel Remembers.  Mr. Wall is a Tenafly resident.  

For more information: A Magnificent Fight