This is “Old News.” You will love it anyway. It is a story of “Old Glory.” It’ll touch your sense of patriotism and your heart.  Yes, last month’s Sun Lakes Splash issue was the same high-quality newspaper you expect. But for many, how it hit your driveway was unique.
 
Go ahead. Brag. You have had 98-year old Pearl Harbor Survivor and decorated World War II Navy Aviator, Jack Holder, as your “Paper Boy.”
 
“Life is a funny thing,” says Holder, with a smile as big as his native Texas. “Most people experience delivering newspapers much younger. I waited until I was 98.”
 
Credit Don Robins for your special delivery. He’s Jack’s close friend and an active Sun Lakes Rotary Club member. “Jack is an important part of our club,” says Robins, its Education Director. “Delivering newspapers helps others, and I knew it would help Jack because we have fun doing it.”
 
Don was right. Covid-19 confinement has been hard on Jack Holder, taking away the public appearances and military events which keep him young. “It’s been hell because I’m not one to sit around and watch TV,” Jack admits. “But not being allowed at the last minute onto the Battleship Missouri in Pearl Harbor for the 75th Commemoration of the end of World War II was absolutely the worst.”  
 
For mostly 35 years, Jack Holder has quietly been our neighbor in Chandler/Sun Lakes. It was only a few years ago he finally got comfortable telling others he survived 315 U.S. Navy flight missions, the Pearl Harbor Attack, Battle of Midway, a deadly crash as a corporate pilot, and more. Ironically now, storytelling is what fuels his life’s engine.
 
Jack was to leave on August 29th for Pearl Harbor where he was to be the honored guest aboard the USS Missouri on Sept 2nd to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Japan signing the 'Instrument of Surrender' aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan on September 2, 1945. But sadly the trip was cancelled because of COVID-19.
 
“Alexander Graham Bell is rolling over in his grave,” laughs Jack. May it be many years before Jack Holder knows what that is like.  We are proud to have Jack as a member of our Sun Lakes Rotary Club.
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