University of North Texas 
Tom Holmes
Submitted on Tuesday, June 9, 2009Graduation Year: 1941
Sixty-six years after leading a squadron in a daring bombing raid on the Ploesti oil fields in Romania, World War II pilot Lt. Col. Tom Holmes Jr. (’41) was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross. Holmes studied architectural drawing at North Texas and learned to fly in a pilot training course on campus. The story of his military service and delayed award is told in the Jan. 30 Beaumont Enterprise.