Navy SEAL with 'fire in his gut' honored by community

Hampton Roads' tight-knit Navy SEAL community gathered Tuesday to pay tribute to one of its own, a "gentle giant" who never walked away from a fight.

Retired Capt. Stanley Holloway, 63, of Virginia Beach died May 18 of brain cancer, which he fought with the same courage and tenacity he brought to every challenge of his long military career, friends and colleagues said at his memorial service at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.

A Wyoming native, Holloway began military life as an Army artillery officer in Vietnam and later switched to the Navy, rising through the ranks to every major level of responsibility in the service's elite commando corps, including stints as commanding officer of Little Creek-based SEAL teams.

"Stan loved being a SEAL," said Bob Rieve, a retired Navy captain who was Holloway's superior officer several times over his career. "The fire in his gut never dimmed."

After retirement, Holloway worked for Technology Management Co., a military contractor, developing nonlethal weapons for anti-piracy operations. He was at the top of his game when his illness struck him down, Rieve said.

Colleagues described Holloway as a garrulous, larger-than-life figure and an avid skier, bicyclist and camper who doted on his twin grandsons. "He had so many plans for them," said Taylor Holloway, one of Holloway's two children and the twins' father.

In a statement Tuesday, Capt. Howard Lenway, chief staff officer for East Coast-based SEAL teams, called Holloway "an outstanding naval officer and fantastic SEAL. He will be sorely missed by his family, friends, and the entire naval special warfare community."

The SEALs are famously secretive about their operations, so details of Holloway's military career were sparse Tuesday. But several colleagues said his career stood as a model for them.

"He taught me to never back down from a fight if you're in the right," said Phil Litteer, who first met Holloway when both were Army lieutenants in 1968. "He stood up for his principles even if he lost the fight."

When Holloway became team commander at Little Creek, Litteer said, the two of them strolled out to the Atlantic shore.

"As we looked out over the ocean," Litteer said, "I could see determination in his eyes. And I felt safer as an American."

Bill Sizemore, (757) 446-2276, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com