Community Corner

Holbury Items on Display at Avon Lake American Legion Post

Avon High graduate is Lorain County's most decorated veteran

graduate Brigadier General Robert J. Holbury, the most decorated veteran in Lorain County, received additional recognition this week.

Copies of Holbury’s 45 medals, including 20 air medals, and ribbons, awards and military memorabilia are now on display in the entranceway of the American Legion Post 211 on Walker Road, right next door to a home Holbury, a former pilot, once lived in.

Holbury was born in what is now the city of Avon Lake, living his first eight years in a Walker Road house next door to the Post 211 before moving to Avon, where he graduated high school.

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Holbury died in 2005, while residing in Florida.

The United States Air Force veteran, who received the Distinguished Service Cross, was honored at a dinner Oct. 31, 2010 with family and friends present. The Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest award for valor is presented by the office of the President of the United States.

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On March 5, the Post’s Sgt.-at-Arms, John Shondel, a retired Green Beret, unveiled the framed medals, a collage that includes every plane Holbury has ever flown and a copy of Holbury's biography.

Included in that collage is a photo of the SR-71 Blackbird. Years ahead of its time, the Mach 3+ strategic reconnaissance aircraft was kept at Area 51.

“It was on the forefront for sophisticated aircraft reconnaissance,” Shondel said. Holbury was the base commander that includes the secretive and storied “Area 51” located 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas. “(Holbury) was one of only 126 pilots who ever flew the SR-71.”

Holbury’s sister, Betty Lundberg, who viewed the framed items this week, said her brother’s time in Nevada was a high point. 

“The highlight of his career was his time in Las Vegas when the SR-71 was there,” Lundberg, an Avon Lake resident, said.

Holbury was in charge of the desert base from 1961-67, when the SR-71 was tested. For years, stories were rampant of UFOs and aliens secretly stored at Area 51. Lundberg said her brother never discusses military operations of Area 51. Shondel speculated that what people thought were alien spacecraft might have been the Blackbird.

“It was years ahead,” Shondel said. “No one had seen anything like that at the time.”

The collage, presented to Holbury during his retirement dinner, was signed by members of the Tactical Air Command Headquarters at Langley AFB, Virginia, where Holbury retired on May 1, 1972. The collage includes a signature by William W. Momyer, a 4-star general.

Shondel was responsible for bringing Holbury’s status to the public.

While researching the website Home of Heroes, Shondel, a three-year resident of Avon Lake who is also involved with the Avon Lake Historical Society, decided to research Avon and Avon Lake residents on the site.

According to the site, which claims to reference veterans back to the Civil War, Holbury was the most decorated veteran in either city. Armed with a list of more than 50 honors Holbury was awarded during a career that spanned from 1942 – 1972 and three wars, the Post opted to honor the brigadier general the dinner last fall, attended by more than 60 family and friends, including his nephew, Mike Bramhall, who lives in Avon.

Holbury’s siblings are listed on one plaque, including Lundberg, Jeanne Oster of Prescott, AZ and Margaret Bramhall and Winifred Conrad (both deceased). His children are Rollin Holbury of Amherst, Robert Holbury Jr. of Las Vegas and Nancy Holscher of Milan, OH. Holbury’s first wife Dorothy, is deceased. He was survived by his second wife, Lori.


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