By Joan Holland
NAVAIR Public Affairs

The assignment came as both a challenge and a surprise. After all, with 23 years of active duty service to the Navy behind him, he thought his deployment days were over.

However, when the message calling for a volunteer to serve as a coalition mission planner passed across his desk in early February 2003, it wasn’t long before NAVAIR aviation safety officer Cmdr. Kevin “Garth” Holland started packing his bags for a temporary duty assignment with Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in Manama, Bahrain.

Two factors that intensified the urgency of the request and the importance of making a swift decision were that the war with Iraq looked more certain with each passing day, and Holland was newly married. In fact, he was married only 10 days before the NAVCENT job came to his attention. Within 22 days of his Annapolis wedding, he was on his way to Bahrain. For his family and friends, it was a whirlwind of shock and worry mixed with pride in his willingness to serve in the dangerous region.

“When I saw the message, I called my new wife, she gave her blessing immediately, and I volunteered,” said Holland. “I saw it as a chance to serve my country during a time of great uncertainty, while bringing the NAVAIR story to Bahrain. It has been rewarding, especially as my Navy career winds down, to feel that I had a meaningful part to play in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.” Personnel who NAVAIR lends on a temporary basis, help augment forces so the warfighter’s mission in critical areas can be accomplished more effectively. These six month "rip to fill" assignments provided NAVCENT the manpower and expertise it needed to conduct OIF and OEF simultaneously.

After arriving in Bahrain, Holland was quickly incorporated into the coalition maritime planning group under the N3 (Operations) directorate. "Doing coalition planning for OEF was challenging and rewarding, it became even more so once OIF kicked off,” Holland remarked. "Nations were participating in OIF under certain rules of engagement and their national command authorities limited the extent they could work our Iraqi Freedom Maritime objectives. Our coalition staff was talented enough to work through these limitations and maintain a robust naval presence to eliminate military contraband from moving into Iraq, and shut down escape routes for al Qaeda and Taliban leaders at the same time. In addition, U.S. and coalition forces were enforcing U.N. sanctions on Iraq throughout the campaign."

This was not Holland’s first assignment in the Middle East. "I've had a great deal of operational experience in the CENTCOM area of responsibility as a helicopter detachment officer in charge during the first Gulf War, and later as the naval aviation adviser to the Royal Saudi Naval Forces, so I felt my experience would add some value as a coalition operations planner,” said Holland.

Among his experience in the area is a 1992, stint in Bahrain as the detachment officer in charge of the Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Detachment 2, known as the “Desert Ducks”. During Holland’s tenure, the squadron was awarded the prestigious Golden Falcon award, recognizing the logistics squadron as the best in the Middle East.

Additionally, in an assignment with U.S. Central Command, Holland lived and worked in Saudi Arabia from 1997 through 1998, as the naval aviation adviser to the Royal Saudi Naval Forces. In this position, he served as the sole active duty naval aviation adviser in the area for the U.S. military training mission to Saudi Arabia.

As he prepares to return home in July, Holland says he reflects often on ways he can incorporate the lessons he learned the previous five months in Bahrain into his work at NAVAIR.

“The truth is, I’ve given my work here one hundred percent, but I also never stopped thinking about all the exciting things I still have to do at NAVAIR. We’re developing an integrated safety team at the headquarters level that will encompass aviation, occupational safety and health, and systems safety. It’s an exciting and important initiative, so I’m anxious to get home to both my family and my work.”

When Holland returns to Pax River, he will resume his duties as NAVAIR’s aviation safety officer, as well as search and rescue helicopter pilot and C-12 pilot for NAS Patuxent River.

“I’m so glad I had the opportunity to serve my country over here for the past five months,” remarked Holland, “but it really has reminded me that there is no better place to live than Southern Maryland, no better place to work than NAVAIR, and no place like home.”

For more information about this release contact Joan Holland at (301) 342- 0207, or [email protected].

Photo cutline:
Cmdr. Kevin Holland, far right, leads a planning discussion about the coalition maritime plan revision for OEF in the friendly forces coordination center conference room at NAVCENT Headquarters in Manama, Bahrain. In attendance are coalition naval officers from, left to right, Spain, Great Britain, and Australia.