Admiral James Lemuel Holloway III (1922 – 2019) was born in Charleston, South Carolina and graduated from Saint James School, Maryland in 1939. He then entered the US Naval Acadamy from which he graduated early due to World War II.
During the war he served in destroyers on North Atlantic convoy duty, in North African waters and in the Pacific, participating in the Battle of Saipan, Battle of Tinian, Battle of Palau and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. He was serving aboard Bennion at the Battle of Surigao Strait when a night torpedo attack sank the Japanese battleship Yamashiro, receiving the Bronze Star Medal and Navy Commendation Medal.
After World War II he became a naval aviator, serving aboard carriers during the Korean war for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross,3 Air Medals and shared in a Navy Unit Commendation awarded to the aircraft carrier Valley Forge. Promoted to Cdr. he commanded VA-83, flying Skyhawks from USS Essex which covered the Marine landings in Lebanon.
In 1965 he was given command of the first Nuclear powered carrier, Enterprise, serving in the Gulf of Tonkin against the North Vietnamese. In 1968 he was transferred to the Pentagon to establish the Nuclear Powered Carrier Program, building the supercarrier Nimitz, being awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for this achievement. Then in 1970 he commanded of the Carrier Striking Force of the Sixth Fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean after the Syrian invasion of Jordanaboard his flagship, the carrier Independence.
1972 saw him take command of the Seventh Fleet during the Vietnam War and he then served as Vice Chief of Naval Operations from 1973 to 1974 and as Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) from 1974 to 1978 and was a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS),
After retirement from the navy in 1978 he served in many roles.