Our Arklahoma Heritage: Hero from Cherokee County earned Purple Hearts in battles seven years apart in two wars

Robert Fount Holland was born on July 4, 1921, on a small family farm south of Tahlequah in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, the son of William and Mary Fountain Holland.

Raised in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, he grew up speaking both English and Cherokee, working the fields before school and learning early the value family, duty, and community.

A proud Cherokee citizen by blood, he graduated from Tahlequah High School in 1939 and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, driven by a sense of service that would define his life

During World War II, Holland served as a captain with the 106th Infantry Division in Europe. In December 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge near Bastogne, Belgium, shrapnel struck his left thigh while he led his men under heavy German fire.

He refused medical evacuation to stay with his unit and was awarded his first Purple Heart.

Just days later, on December 26, he rallied 37 soldiers through intense machine-gun fire to retake a lost outpost, an act of gallantry that earned him the Silver Star

.Seven years later, in September 1951, now a major with the 7th Infantry Division in Korea, Holland was wounded again near Heartbreak Ridge when a mortar round exploded nearby.

The blast took the index and middle fingers of his right hand, but he held the line and kept his troops together, earning a second Purple Heart, the Bronze Star with “V” device for valor, and a battlefield promotion.

His full decorations included the Legion of Merit for leadership, the Combat Infantryman Badge with second award, the European Campaign Medal with three stars, the Korean Service Medal with two stars, and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, among others.

After 29 years of active duty, he retired as a colonel in 1971.

Returning home to Tahlequah, Holland brought the same steady resolve to education that he had shown on the battlefield.

For two decades, he taught JROTC at Tahlequah High School, guiding hundreds of students with quiet discipline and real-world lessons in courage and responsibility.

He rarely spoke of his medals, telling students only, “I came home. A lot of my boys didn’t.”

He was a lifelong member of VFW Post 3707, the Cherokee Nation Veterans Committee, and First Baptist Church of Tahlequah.

Holland married Evelyn Benge in 1944, and together they raised two children: son William R. Holland, who followed his father into the Army and retired as a lieutenant colonel, and daughter Mary Holland-Cooper of Park Hill. At the time of his death, he had four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

.Colonel Robert Fountain Holland died peacefully at his home in Tahlequah on November 17, 1998, at age 77.

His funeral was held at First Baptist Church, followed by full military honors at Tahlequah City Cemetery, where the Fort Gibson Honor Guard and Cherokee Nation Color Guard paid tribute. His headstone bears a Purple Heart marker and the Cherokee veteran medallion.

Every Memorial Day, local veterans lay a wreath at his grave.

His legacy lives in the students he shaped, the Cherokee youth he inspired, and the quiet example he set: stand up, keep going, come home. In a county rich with heroes, Colonel Holland remains one of its truest.