Skip James Holm (born February 22, 1944) is a retired pilot who lives in Calabasas, California, USA. Holm claims to hold the world record for combat flight hours: 1,172. He retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1992, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He logged his combat hours flying F-105s and F-4s in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. After three

tours of duty For military personnel, a tour of duty is usually a period of time spent in combat or in a hostile environment. In an army, for instance, soldiers on active duty serve 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the length of their service commitment. ...

in Vietnam, he joined Lockheed

Skunk Works Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, highly classified research and developme ...

and test piloted the experimental and production

F-117 The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk is an officially retired American single-seat, subsonic, Twinjet, twin-engined, stealth aircraft, stealth attack aircraft developed by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed's secretive Skunk Works division and operated ...

s. Holm participated in the

Reno Air Races The Reno Air Races, or Roswell Air Races, officially known as the National Championship Air Races, are a multi-day event tailored to the aviation community that took place each September at the Reno Stead Airport a few miles north of Reno, ...

since 1981. He has won in the Unlimited class of piston-engined aircraft in 1984, 2000, 2002 and 2003. Holm performed as stand-in pilot in '' The Right Stuff'' and ''

Hot Shots! ''Hot Shots!'' is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Jim Abrahams, co-writer and co-director of ''Airplane!'', and written by Abrahams and Pat Proft. It stars Charlie Sheen, Cary Elwes, Valeria Golino, Lloyd Bridges, Jon Cryer, Kevin ...

Personal life

Holm was married to actress

P. J. Soles Pamela Jayne Soles (née Hardon; born July 17, 1950) is a retired American actress. She made her film debut in 1976 as Norma Watson in Brian De Palma's ''Carrie (1976 film), Carrie'' (1976) before portraying List of Halloween (franchise) charact ...

from 1983 to 1998. They have a son named Sky (born in 1983) and a daughter named Ashley (born in 1988).

References

Books

* Robert Gandt, ''Fly Low Fly Fast: Inside the Reno Air Races'' (1999)

External links

Official site
* 1944 births Living people United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War United States Air Force officers United States Air Force reservists {{USAF-bio-stub