History

Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Daniel E. Holland was the youngest of ten children in a military family. His father retired in Marlow, Oklahoma, where Daniel graduated from high school in 1981. Thereafter he entered Oklahoma State University (OSU) on an Army ROTC scholarship, and was later accepted into OSU’s College of Veterinary Medicine. His dreams were realized when he was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army in 1984, and when he received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree in 1988. During his long career, he served with distinction in field, garrison and academic assignments around the world to include Fort Benjamin Harrison, IN; Fort Sill, OK; Haiti; Honduras; Colorado State University; Tuzla, Bosnia; and the Army Medical Department Center and School at Fort Sam Houston, TX. LTC Holland was the Commander, South Plains District Veterinary Command at Ft. Hood, TX when a call went out for volunteers to serve in Iraq.  He answered the call, leaving Ft. Hood to be attached to a civil affairs command at Fort Bragg, NC, then was further attached to the 4th Infantry Division as the Chief of Public Health and Functional Specialty Teams for Civil Affairs. On May 18, 2006, LTC Holland and three other Soldiers, along with an Iraqi interpreter, made the ultimate sacrifice for their Nations when they were killed in action by a roadside bomb near Baghdad while on a humanitarian mission to aid the people of Iraq.