Navy Federal Credit Union

Reverend J. M. Holder was a Baptist minister who, in 1931, was pastor of a Baptist Church in Liberal Kansas. In 1944 he went to Central Baptist Seminary in Kansas City, Kansas as a member of the faculty, and then served as pastor of the Baptist Church in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He entered military service on June 12, 1945, and was commissioned a U.S. Army chaplain. He was serving with the 11th Airborne Division in 1949 when he volunteered for duty in the Pacific. When the Korean War began volunteered for service in Korea where he was assigned to the 24th Infantry Division, earning a Silver Star in the first six months of the war. When fellow Airborne chaplain Holland Hope was severely injured in an action in which he was himself awarded the Silver Star, Holder volunteered for duty with the 11th Airborne Division and became chaplain of Hope’s 186th Airborne Regimental Combat Team. After his war service he moved to California where, in the 1960s, he was pastor of Cresenta Valley Baptist Church in North Hollywood.

Awards Received

  • Silver Star

    Service:

    United States Army

    Rank:

    Captain (Chaplain’s Corps)

    Batallion:

    3d Battalion

    Regiment:

    19th Infantry Regiment

    Division:

    24th Infantry Division

    Action Date:

    November 8 – 10, 1950

    Headquarters, 24th Infantry Division, General Orders No. 265 (December 17, 1950)

    The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Captain (Chaplain’s Corps) J. M. Holder (ASN: 0-932654), United States Army, for gallantry in action as a member of the 3d Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, in action near Anju, Korea, on 8 to 10 November 1950. Personnel of the 1st Battalion of the Regiment, which had previously been cut off by overwhelming numbers of the advancing enemy, were still unaccounted for after four days. Determined to evacuate the wounded and dead who now lay deep behind the enemy’s lines he unhesitatingly joined patrols in probing the former positions of the battalion. During this period he advanced, time after time, into areas infested by the enemy, without regard for his own safety, intent only on locating and evacuating both the living and the dead. Often fired upon at close range by enemy patrols he refused to be deterred from his self-appointed mission and continued on until assured that all his fallen comrades had been located and removed to friendly positions. Chaplain Holder’s courageous actions and complete devotion to his fellow man reflect the greatest credit on himself and the United States Chaplain Corps.