On October 26, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower named Holloway to succeed Admiral Walter F. Boone as Commander in Chief, U.S. Naval Forces, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean (CINCNELM),[34] Holloway assumed command in November 1957,[8] and was promoted to full admiral on January 1, 1958.[28] with additional duty as Commander, Subordinate Command U.S. Atlantic Fleet (COMSCOMLANTFLT), and later as U.S. Commander Eastern Atlantic (USCOMEASTLANT).[35] As CINCNELM, Holloway commanded all U.S. naval forces in Europe, including the Sixth Fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Charles R. Brown.[8]
In November 1957, the Joint Chiefs of Staff instructed Holloway to establish a specified command, the first in Eisenhower's defense reorganization program. In the event of an emergency in the Middle East, he was to transfer his flag from London to the Mediterranean as Commander in Chief, Specified Command, Middle East (CINCSPECOMME)
Lebanon crisis of 1958
On July 14, 1958, the Hashemite dynasty in Iraq was overthrown by a military coup d'état. Fearing that he would be next, Lebanese president Camille Chamoun appealed for American military aid within 48 hours to settle domestic unrest in his own country, invoking the Eisenhower Doctrine, which stated that the United States would intervene upon request to stabilize countries threatened by international communism. Holloway, who happened to be serving on a Selection Board in Washington at the time, promptly met with Chief of Naval Operations Arleigh A. Burke, who warned that a deployment order was imminent but that commitments in East Asia precluded any reinforcements from the Seventh Fleet. Retorted Holloway, "I don't need any help. I can take over all of the Lebanon if you say the word." As one of Burke's few remaining peers in the Navy, Holloway took the opportunity to tease the CNO. "But I've already had another proposition....From some Britisher. He thinks, if there's action, I should go up and take the port of Tripoli to protect their oil installations there." The famously mercurial Burke cursed him out.[37]
At 6:23 p.m. on July 14, President Eisenhower ordered that the American intervention force begin to arrive at Beirut by 9:00 a.m. on July 15, when he planned to announce the intervention on national television. Burke relayed the order to Holloway at 6:30 p.m., adding, "Join your flagship now. Sail all Sixth Fleet eastward." Holloway had been given less than fifteen hours to establish a beachhead. He immediately flew back to his London headquarters, where he stopped just long enough to assemble his staff and activate Operation Bluebat, a preplanned scenario for suppressing a coup d'état in Lebanon, before flying on to Beirut.[2][38][39]
On July 15, only four minutes behind schedule, the first wave of Marines landed on a tourist beach near Beirut. In one of the most colorful episodes in Marine Corps history,[40] a delighted crowd of curious spectators and bikini-clad sunbathers waved and cheered as a battalion of Marines waded ashore in full battle gear and stormed the beach. Soft drink vendors and ice cream carts appeared playing nickelodeon music while small boys swam out to the landing craft and offered to help the Marines carry their equipment. After herding the civilians out of the way, the Marines secured the landing site and seized Beirut International Airport. Holloway flew into the airport from London at 4:00 a.m. on July 16 and boarded his flagship Taconic in time to supervise the next wave of landings, which he summarized for Burke in one word: "Flawless."[2][39][40][41]
U.S. Marines moving into Beirut, July 16, 1958.At 10:30 a.m. on July 16, as the Marines prepared to move into Beirut, it was discovered that Lebanese Army tanks had blocked the road from the airport, with orders to prevent the Marines from entering the city. Holloway raced to the scene, arriving at the roadblock at the same time as the American ambassador to Lebanon, Robert M. McClintock, and the general in chief of the Lebanese Army, General Fuad Chehab. Adjourning to a nearby schoolhouse for an impromptu conference, they devised a compromise whereby the Lebanese Army would escort the Marines into the city. Holloway insisted that they start moving right away, "tootey-sweetey".[2][40]
This done, [the Marine] battalion moved out once more, but this time with Lebanese jeeps at intervals in the American column, the whole being led by two official cars containing the American ambassador to Lebanon, the general in chief of the Lebanese Army, the American task force commander, the commander of the Fast Carrier Strike Force, and the commander of the Marine task force. It was one of the more unusual politico-military processions in American history, and its progress marked the passing of the crisis of the American intervention in Lebanon.[42]
"We were really sitting on a powder keg," Holloway said later, "but fortunately there were no incidents. We just got in a car?Ambassador McClintock and I?and led the column straight through."[2] Once the column entered the city, Chehab departed and Holloway "assumed personal tactical command," directing individual units to their respective billeting areas in the city?"my first and last experience in field officer grade with land forces."
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