Earlier this year, with the help of Lile Anderson, son of Lieutenant Commander Burroughs Anderson of the USS HOLT, we worked through the list of crew members to determine how close we were to the Last Man of the USS HOLT. Back in the 2002 USS HOLT crew reunion in Jacksonville, it was announced the last man living of the USS HOLT would share a bottle of Scotch with Lile Anderson. Over the years, the crew roster on the ussholt.com website was updated when we, unfortunately, heard of the passing of another crew member. There were a number of Whereabouts Unknown status for some crew members, but they were that way during the HOLT reunions and those crew members were unknown at that time. Kathryn Thrift, the wife of crew member Clem Thrift, helped a lot during the years in finding lost crew members.
As Lile Anderson and Jeff Cope worked through the last members of the crew roster, it was finally determined that David C. Miller RM 3/c was the Last Man of the USS HOLT. Lile was able to get in touch with Mr. Miller’s daughter, Mary Kellett, who informed her father, and a few commemorative HOLT items were sent to Mr. Miller. Shortly after though, Mr. Miller contracted COVID-19, was hospitalized and passed away on February 26, 2021.
We give a hearty cheer to David C. Miller for being the Last Man, and celebrate the entire crew of the USS HOLT in our hearts and memories.