Teaching History Matters

25 or 30 years ago, during a symposium with Pacific veterans in the Hudson Falls High School library, I overheard local Pacific veterans discussing among themselves during a break about a kid, Randy Holmes, from Hudson Falls who was killed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. I asked them more, and snuck down to the ‘vault’, and dug out the 1942 yearbook. His classmates had dedicated it to him as he had left school early to join the Navy. He was killed on the Oklahoma. Yesterday, his finally identified remains were interred at Arlington 83 years later.
Trishna Begam, local Albany anchor and reporter, knew of my connections to WW2 and HF, and told me after getting a press release from the navy, and found Randy’s great niece. Then she took the time to come up to Moss St. Cemetery to interview me, and Randy’s great-niece, also in the story below, contacted me. Though my lifelong mission was to bring him back to HF to lay next to his parents, Arlington will do! I am glad he is remembered, but my students and I never forgot. No one called him Harry, by their way. He was Randy to his friends and family in our hometown of Hudson Falls. He opens and closes my first [2015] book.

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HUDSON FALLS, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The remains of a local Navy sailor who died 82 years ago were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery Thursday afternoon. The U.S. Navy says Harry R. Holmes was aboard the USS Oklahoma during the attack on Pearl Harbor. His local connection is still cemented in his hometown of Hudson Falls and well documented by retired high school history teacher Matthew Rozell.

At the Moss Street Cemetery in Hudson Falls, Rozell showed NEWS10 the marker that sits in place for the hometown hero who was almost lost to time.

Rozell explained, “His grave is right here. He left school early. He would’ve graduated with the class of 1942.”

The young sailor died in action at Pearl Harbor. “My big question was ‘Where is his body? Where is he?’” Rozell wondered for years.

The Navy answered that this year. According to Capt. Jeff Druade, the director of the Navy Casualty Office, Project Oklahoma was started in 2015 to identify service members lost on the Oklahoma during the attack. Three hundred eighty-eight service members were unaccounted for — among them Fireman 3rd Class Harry Randolph Holmes. On December 7, 1941, Holmes was aboard the USS Oklahoma when Japanese torpedoes hit the hull and capsized the battleship in less than 12 minutes. His remains were identified eight decades later through DNA profiling.

“He was loved. He had a mother, father who are over there behind us. And they were never able to bring their son back,” Rozell added.

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This October, 82 years after his death, his country was determined not to forget the young sailor’s sacrifice. He was brought to his final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery.

“A young boy at 19 years old, set foot out to protect our country,” said Rachael Bubbs, a great niece to Holmes.

Bubbs was present, along with her father, to honor her great uncle’s bravery and service. Through DNA profiling and matching samples with surviving family members, the Navy tracked down Bubbs in Florida.

“He was buried in the Punch Bowl for so many years, but now he’s going to one of the greatest cemeteries,” she said. “When everything was presented to me, it was an honor to be truly connected back to that true piece of history.”

It’s history that’s been etched into the stone in his hometown.
Rozell explained, “It’s an important moment in the North Country because he was one of the first killed in WWII from New York. He was only 19. He didn’t get to graduate with his classmates.”

Those classmates knew Holmes by his middle name, Randy, as Rozell would learn from members of the class of 1942. “Listening to his friends, WWII vets, all gone now, they are no longer with us — it was Randy, Randy, Randy. H Randolph Holmes.”

They helped keep his life of service alive. “I dug through the archives, found the yearbook. That’s when I saw the picture of him taken in the backyard of his family home in Hudson Falls.

It’s the only photo of Holmes from a full page from the high school yearbook. He was known as a popular student with a sterling character. Bubbs said, “He went to war for our country, to fight for it. Pearl Harbor is the start of where we are today.”

His country ensuring that Holmes is revered for the generations to follow.

Project Oklahoma has individually identified 356 crew members of the Oklahoma through DNA and matched with surviving family members.