Bell, Holly Gene
Air Force Major

Holly Gene Bell, age 33, from Beaumont, Texas, Jefferson county.

Service era: Vietnam

Date of death: Wednesday, January 28, 1970
Death details: On June 1, 1989, the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii (CILHI, now DPAA) identified the remains of Major Holly Gene Bell, missing from the Vietnam War. Major Bell entered the U.S. Air Force from Texas and was a member of 40th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron. On January 28, 1970, he piloted an HH-53B Super Jolly Green Giant (tail number 14434, call sign “Jolly Green 71”) that took off on a search and rescue mission in Laos. While in a holding pattern over the rescue area, the helicopter was hit by enemy fire and crashed, killing Maj Bell. Search efforts could not be conducted due to a strong enemy presence in the area, and Maj Bell’s remains were not recovered at the time. In 1986, a meeting between U.S. investigators and Vietnamese government officials in Hanoi led to the repatriation of human remains that correlated to Maj Bell’s loss. In 1989, U.S. investigators were able to identify Maj Bell from these remains. Major Bell is memorialized in the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Chicago Tribune (1970), Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency