General Bruce K. Holloway '33, USAF

The Service Academy Program (SAP) at Marion Military Institute is named for the late General Bruce Keener Holloway ’33, USAF, former head of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), and commander of the U. S. Air Forces in Europe.

General Bruce Keener Holloway ’33, USAF. (Credit: Official U. S. Air Force photograph)



LTC Gerry Lewis, Director of the Service Academy Program (SAP), and Faculty Advisor, Air Force Academy Preparation Cadets, at Marion Military Institute. (Credit: Marion Military Institute)



A native of Knoxville, Tennessee, General Bruce K. Holloway completed two years in engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He attended MMI in 1932-33 as one of 190 members of the Corps of Cadets. Entering the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, Holloway graduated in the Class of 1937 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. He received his pilot wings in 1938 at Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas, and then spent two years with the Sixth Pursuit Squadron and the 18th Pursuit Group in Hawaii. Holloway then pursued postgraduate work in aeronautical engineering at the California Institute of Technology.

Once the United States entered World War II, Bruce Holloway was sent to Chungking, China, when he joined Claire Chennault’s American Volunteer Group – the famed “Flying Tigers.” Later activated as the Army Air Force’s 23rd Fighter Group, Holloway rose to command that unit after earning his status as a fighter ace, shooting down some 13 Japanese planes and becoming a national hero in China. Considered one of air power’s finest tacticians, he obtained a 10:1 victory ratio over the Japanese.

In 1946, Holloway commanded the Air Force’s first jet-equipped fighter group, pioneering jet air operational tactics. Following graduation from the National War College in 1951, Holloway quickly rose through key staff assignments in both the operations and development fields at Headquarters, U. S. Air Force, later directing operational requirements.

Bruce Holloway served as deputy commander of the 9th and 12th Air Forces (Tactical Air Command) for four years, and was named deputy commander of the U.S. Strike Command at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, in 1961. As part of that assignment, he later served as deputy commander in chief of the Middle East/Southern Asia and Africa South of the Sahara Command.

Emblem of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), 1946 – 1992. (Credit: U.S. Air Force)



General Holloway took command of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe in July, 1965, serving in that capacity until August 1, 1966, when he was appointed vice chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force.

General Bruce K. Holloway ‘33 retired from the Air Force in 1972, having served since 1937. He was an Associate Administrator for NASA in 1973-74, and served as president of the U.S. Strategic Institute in 1981. The General died at the age of 87 in Orlando, Florida, on September 30, 1999.

His military decorations included, among others, the Silver Star, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Air Medal.

Another image of General Bruce K. Holloway ’33, USAF. (Credit: Official U.S. Air Force photograph)

Alumni Weekend, 4 April 2009

This and That

This “quarantine letter,” dated September 2, 1905, is an incredible read! With “fever” in Louisiana and Mississippi, and with those two areas locked down under quarantine, MMI released this appeal for college students in those states to come study at the Institute in Alabama. However, these students would first need to gather at the Piedmont Hotel in Atlanta (“The Marion Military Institute Headquarters”) where COL James T. Murfee, the “Superintendent,” would greet them, and provide them with room and board at the hotel while observing a seven- day observation period required under quarantine law. However, the students would be matriculated and assigned classes, and educational tours would be given in Atlanta (presumably, for only those seemingly uninfected) until the seven-day period expired. Then, they would be taken to MMI and processed as students. The faculty would work to bring these students up to speed so that nothing would have been missed since the Institute’s official September 7th opening for the school year. (Credit: MMI Archives)



The lengths MMI went to recruit students in the past!

These two color images are from a feature article in The Birmingham News, dated February 6, 1972. The article centers on Betty M. Moss, a MMI high school senior, who reportedly became the first female member of The Swamp Foxes, MMI’s elite Ranger unit (the 1972 MMI yearbook depicts her as the unit’s “Sponsor”). However, the News article has her participating in much of the Swamp Fox training schedule, reporting that she was an accepted and highly-popular member of the unit who usually “stole the show” during Swamp Fox demonstrations! (Credit: The Birmingham News; Frank Sikora, author; Robert Adams, photographer)





Betty M. Moss, now Ms. Betty M. McAuliffe, is a “Homemaker” who lives in Richmond, Virginia.

H. O. Murfee, Marion College, and the General Education Board (GEB)

Hobson Owen Murfee, the second president of MMI/MI, c. 1905. (Credit: MMI Archives)



In March, 1910, Hobson Owen Murfee, president of Marion Institute, sent the General Education Board (GEB) in New York City, a 10-page epistle requesting funding for MMI’s endowment. Initially, he hoped to gain some $100,000 from the GEB to establish an endowment foundation for the Institute. A non-sectarian institution, Marion received neither church nor state funding. H. O. Murfee’s dream of creating an “Eton of the South” in Marion was well underway, and Marion Institute (the “military” had been dropped from the name) was fast becoming Marion College, an institution which was initially modeled on Eton College and other great public (private) secondary boarding schools in England, but one which enhanced its secondary nature rather than its collegiate.

Eton College, Windsor. Founded in 1440, additions to Eton’s list of distinguished graduates include Princes William and Harry, both now Old Etonians. (Credit: http://www.ridge.co.uk/sectors_and_projects/education/eton_college.aspx)



The GEB denied Murfee’s request for endowment funding precisely because Marion Institute/Marion College personified a secondary institution and not a collegiate one. Also, funding could only be provided for endowment – present incurred debts (Murfee had some $9,000 in debts already) could not be paid by GEB funding, including the John D. Rockefeller Fund.

Correspondence between Murfee and members of the General Education Board ran for nearly a decade, beginning as early as 1902! Murfee kept trying to convince the GEB that he had amended his original plan, and that he was now transforming the Institute into a full-fledged college, one which would be patterned after the Ivy League colleges and universities. However, MI’s reputation as a strong college preparatory school was difficult to overcome.

Murfee’s 1910 application to the GEB included these statistics as to the number of teachers, students, and graduates since MMI/MI’s founding in 1887, through 1909. (Credit: MMI Archives)



H. O. Murfee canvassed Alabama trying to raise some $100,000 from within the state. The good people of Marion reportedly contributed some $10,000 to this effort, but I have yet to locate a listing of donors. One man from Russellville, Alabama, gave $5,000 in the name of his late son, who was a MI student.

In short, H. O. Murfee’s dream was well underway, but his plans to expand and improve the physical plant alone were incurring numerous debts. The long sought-after monies for the endowment – vital to insure the stability of Marion College – was just not forthcoming in the amounts needed to stabilize the institution.

In the end, the outbreak of World War I, mobilization, and the return to military training at the Institute, signaled the demise of H. O. Murfee’s dream of an “Eton of the South.” After so many years of hard work and sacrifice pursuing his goal, Hobson Owen Murfee must have been crushed by its failure.

A Unique Howard College/MMI History

Howard College During the Civil War and Reconstruction, 1860-1873, by James Dean Lancaster, Jr., M.A. Thesis in History, Samford University, 1974.

This master’s thesis by James Dean Lancaster, Jr. - which is housed in the Samford University Library - is an excellent source of material about the history of Howard College in Marion, Alabama, during the Civil War and Reconstruction.
It also serves as a precursor to the founding of Marion Military Institute in 1887.

A native of Gadsden, Alabama, where he graduated from Gadsden High School, Mr. Lancaster is a free-lance entertainment and travel writer who lives in Branson, Missouri. A 1972 graduate of Samford University (A.B. in history and biology), he completed the M.A. degree in history there in 1975. Eminent historian, Dr. Wayne Flynt, served as Lancaster’s research supervisor.

This drawing (by Daniel Fate Brooks) from the thesis depicts The Chapel at Howard College/MMI, flanked on the left by Henry Talbird, the president who led Howard College through the Antebellum years to the Civil War; center: a Howard College student in uniform, 1873; and, on the right, President J. L. M. Curry, who tried to revive Howard after the war and bring it through the Reconstruction period. COL James T. Murfee, who served as president from 1871 until Howard moved to Birmingham in 1887, initiated the military system of discipline, uniforms, and drill. Murfee founded and served as the first president of Marion Military Institute beginning in 1887, utilizing the old Howard College campus in Marion, Alabama.



Painting of James Thomas Murfee in the Samford University Library. (Credit: Bill Mathews, MMI H’60, J ’62)



The title page from the thesis.



The thesis is divided into two parts: “Howard College During Antebellum Times and the Civil War, 1860-1865”; and “Howard College during Reconstruction, 1865-1873.” The “Table of Contents” is illustrative. Descriptive appendices and a strong bibliography complete this effort.

The “Table of Contents.”



From the author’s abstract:
“The years 1860 to 1873 were years of growth, turbulence, and transition for a small Baptist institution, Howard College. This was a period of adjustment which tried the patience of Howard and her presidents, faculty, trustees, and students.”

Finally: “Howard College during this fourteen-year period managed to survive a war and the ordeal of Reconstruction. It survived these trials as well as internal problems such as finances, lack of enough students, and even at times, a lack of leadership, to become the university [Samford University] it is today.”

Credits: Samford University Library, Birmingham, AL; James Dean Lancaster, Jr., author, Branson, MO; Daniel Fate Brooks, artist; and to Gail Barton and Jennifer Taylor of the Samford University Library/Special Collections staff.

In my opinion, this master’s thesis is worthy of publication.

Images From Around Town

The Lincoln School in 1872. (Credit: Samford University Special Collections)



A colored postcard of the then three-story Marion Female Seminary (founded 1836), late 19th or early 20th Centuries. (Credit: Perry County Historical and Preservation Society)



Another postcard view of the three-story Marion Female Seminary. (Credit: Perry County Historical and Preservation Society)



A great image of students at the Marion Female Seminary, c. late 19th Century. Note the bearded gentleman (Headmaster?) in the center of the group, and the little boys in the very front. (Credit: Perry County Historical and Preservation Society)



Nicola Marschall, a Prussian-born art, music, and languages teacher at the Marion Female Seminary, is credited with designing the first official Confederate flag and the first Confederate uniform. (Credit: Alabama Department of Archives and History)



A colored postcard of The Chapel at Marion Institute, c. early 20th Century.



March 1, 1965, Marion, Alabama: Walking behind the hearse carrying the casket of Jimmie Lee Jackson are four noted Civil Rights leaders. Left to Right: John Lewis (who lead the march with Hosea Williams in Selma on “Bloody Sunday”); Dr. Ralph Abernathy, Dr. King’s most trusted lieutenant; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Andrew Young, another of King’s lieutenants. Dr. King and Andrew Young both married Marion women – King married Coretta Scott, and Young married Jean Childs. (Credit: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18574158/)

From Where I’m Sitting, I Can’t See the Top of the Empire State Building.”

On the foggy morning of Saturday, July 28, 1945, at 9:49 AM, a U. S. Army B-25D Mitchell Bomber, flown by ace fighter pilot LTC William F. Smith, MMI ’38, USMA ’42, plowed into the Empire State Building in New York City. Smith and his two crew members and 11 civilians in the building were killed. The accident was a strange precursor to the events of 9/11 involving the World Trade Center in New York City.

LTC William Franklin Smith, Jr., MMI ’38, USMA ’42. His MMI nickname was “Liver Lips.” (Credit: http://www.brightok.net/)

A native of Latham, Alabama, William Franklin Smith, Jr. (1918-1945), graduated from Marion Military Institute with the A.A. degree in 1938. His nickname at MMI was “Liver Lips!” Smith entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, became an All-American lacrosse player, and graduated in the Class of 1942. Trained to be an Army fighter pilot, Smith served in the European Theatre during World War II for two years, amassing over a thousand hours of flight time including 34 combat missions, and winning two Distinguish Flying Crosses, four Air Medals, and the French Croix de Guerre.

1944: LTC Smith commanding the 750th Squadron, 457th Bombardment Group during World War II. (Credit: http://www.457bombgroup.org/)



This particular flight originated in New Bedford, MA, and attempts to land at LaGuardia Airport in New York City were unsuccessful due to a blanket of dense fog and clouds which had socked the city in. Diverted to the Newark, NJ, airport, the tower at LaGuardia radioed LTC Smith that the ceiling was near zero and that forward visibility was limited to three miles only. The air traffic controller added: “From where I’m sitting, I can’t see the top of the Empire State Building.”

A B-25D Mitchell Bomber like the one LTC Smith was flying on that fateful day. (Credit: Jennifer Rosenberg, The American Dream)



At 9:48AM, witnesses on the ground saw Smith’s bomber barely miss Rockefeller Center, flying at about 500 feet. Then, the plane banked sharply and disappeared into the fog. Officials believe that LTC Smith had found a break in the clouds, that he saw a curved river ahead which he thought was the East River (it was actually the Hudson River), and that he then descended to 225 mph thinking that he was approaching the Newark Airport. Instead, he was on a course straight for the Empire State Building! Smith tried too late to veer away, and struck the 78th and 79th floors of the 102-story building’s north end. The impact – at the 913 foot level – tore an 18 x 20 foot gash in the building, and ignited a blazing inferno. In all, 14 people - Smith and his two crew members and 11 people working in the offices affected – were killed, and 26 others received severe wounds or burns. Material damages ran more than one million dollars.

LTC Smith was 27 years-old.

The burning Empire State Building and the gaping hole in its north side. (Credit: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/)



The building in flames from another vantage point. (Credit: http://www.aerospaceweb.org/)



The Army attempted to pay restitution to the victims of the crash into the Empire State Building, then the world’s tallest building. Some people accepted money, but a major lawsuit was initiated that resulted in landmark legislation for the nation. The Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946, allowed Americans – for the first time – to sue the Federal government.