The Arnold Air Society at Manhattan College has been designated the Major William V. Holohan Squadron. William Vincent Holohan, the highest-ranking officer behind enemy lines in Italy during WWII, was born in New York City on 27 April 1904. A member of the Annunciation Parish, he entered high school at Manhattan Prep in 1917. From the Prep, he crossed the Quadrangle into Manhattan College, graduating on 4 January with a B.A. Degree.

Harvard Law School, class of 1927, was the next step in the career of this promising Catholic gentleman. As a Lawyer for the SEC he successfully tried the first stock manipulation case. He served in Central America for the State Department before Pearl Harbor.

In 1941, a reserve Calvary Officer, Holohan reported for duty at Fort Riley, Kansas. In 1942, he transferred to the Army Air Forces, subsequently serving in Panama. At his own request he transferred to OSS in 1943-44.

In May 1944, he was sent to North Africa with General Donovan's secret organization. Holohan parachuted behind enemy lines in Italy in 1944, as head of a mission to arm friendly partisans against the Nazis. He dropped at the town of Coiroamonte in Northern Italy with two other OSS men, Lt Aldo Icardi and Sgt Carl LoDolce. Holohan and Icardi quarreled over arms that the communists intercepted while they were on their way to the partisan group. Icardi said that fighting the Reds would only endanger the lives of the three men. He instigated the murder and LoDolce shot the Major, throwing his body to the bottom of a lake.

They convinced the OSS that the Major had vanished when their hideout was raided. Lt Elio Albieri of the Italian Police investigated the murder and uncovered the truth. Since the crime was committed while they were in uniform, they could not be tried by the civilian authorities and since they were now civilians, they could not be tried by the military. In 1955, the Federal Grand Jury indicted Icardi on eight counts of perjury. LoDolce was summoned to appear but failed to do so. For some unknown reason, he was never subpoenaed to appear again.

In 1951, Major Holohan's body was returned to the United States where full ceremonies were accorded him at a funeral in Saint Patrick's Cathedral on 27 August of that year. His body rests at the Gates of Heaven Cemetery in Westchester County, New York.

Whenever possible, the Major William V. Holohan Squadron honors his life with a wreath laying ceremony at his gravesite.

https://sites.google.com/site/holohansquadron/squadron-namesake

William Holohan, V