As one of the first “direct inputs” to nuclear power training, when I reported on board Scorpion in the early Fall of 1961, the next junior officer in the Wardroom was LT Jerry Holland – five years senior to me. Having been the junior officer on his previous destroyer and diesel submarine tours, Jerry was understandably glad to see me and became my mentor and good friend. We have since attended each other’s kids’ weddings and such, and I again served with him on my post-command
tour when he was CO of Submarine School.
We have travelled with Jerry and Anne extensively, including two 3-week tours of Great Britain and Ireland, and as was his professional hallmark, Jerry proved to be the ultimate “planner” for these trips, and before we left, a complete itinerary of where we would stay and what we would do and see each day was completed. An important matter to point out here was that Jerry’s mantra was “plan in pencil, schedule in ink”, and if on a given day one of us wanted to do or see something different, the schedule was promptly changed.
Other “Hollandisms” which made travelling with him a pleasure were:
– Each night a different person would pick where to eat, with no suggestions to be asked for or given.
– A division of effort was established in that Jerry was the “tour-meister”, Anne the “shopping meister”, I the “load meister” for repacking the car each day, and as clearly the best and fastest driver on the wrong side of the roads, my wife Mary was the “meister-meister”.
– It was established that there were only four “times” in an hour – the 15-minute periods centered around noon, quarter after, half past and quarter of, so there was no anxiety about being some few minutes early or late for some scheduled event.
Both professionally and personally, Jerry Holland has been a pleasure to be with, and since I have no male siblings, I consider him my surrogate “big brother”.
