Four-Star General Bruce Holloway studied engineering at the University of Tennessee for two years (1929–31) before entering the United States Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1937. After receiving his pilot wings at Kelly Field in San Antonio in 1938, he served for two years with the Sixth Pursuit Squadron and 18th Pursuit Group in Hawaii before taking a postgraduate course in aeronautical engineering at the California Institute of Technology.
Shortly after the United States entered World War II, he began his combat experience as a fighter pilot with the famed Flying Tigers of the American Volunteer Group. Remaining with that group after it was activated as the Army Air Force’s 23rd Fighter Group, he became its commander before returning to the United States in 1944. During that tour in China, General Holloway earned status as a fighter ace, shooting down 13 Japanese planes. He was commander of the US Air Force’s first jet-equipped fighter group in 1946.
He served for four years as deputy commander of both the 9th and 12th Air Forces, and in 1961 was named deputy commander in chief of the US Strike Command at MacDill Air Force Base. He assumed command of the US Air Forces in Europe in July, 1965, serving in that capacity until he was appointed vice chief of staff of the US Air Force August 1, 1966. He then became commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command. He retired in 1972.
He was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.