“What I do know is Farragut was the catalyst that turned me from an academic failure to an academic success.”
— Mike Holmes, soldier, writer, adventurer, goatherd, and candidate for State Representative from southeast Arizona
Too often, we think of an alma mater as the sole institution that forged our future. We assume the school in which our name is attached to parchment paper has registered the most impact. For many, though, the place of existence upon graduation date simply stands as a stopping point in between discovery and success. Such is the case for Mike Holmes, an economic development officer for Pima County, Arizona who is running to be a state representative for Legislative District 14.
When Holmes arrived at Admiral Farragut Academy in 1978, he came as a tattered soul. Two years earlier, shortly after the new year had begun in 1976, his mother and sister were killed in a train accident. The emotional and psychological scars quickly dug in, paving a way for the only child and motherless creature to create havoc at school. Failing and drifting farther and farther away from a legacy of success, Holmes soon was taken from his home in Ocala and delivered to the doorsteps of Farragut by a father who was seemingly at wit’s end.
“To be fair, I would not have needed Farragut had my mother and sister not been killed,” said Holmes, who can speak matter-of-factly about the tragedy due to the success that began to take shape at Farragut. “Of course, I didn’t arrive kicking and screaming but I still arrived with little, if any, enthusiasm.”
Holmes quickly realized he was not the only person teetering on the edge and he became emboldened because of it.
“I quickly saw that as tragic as my story was, there were kids with worse backgrounds,” said Holmes. “I stopped feeling sorry for myself as I realized that some of them had it worse than I did.”
Farragut became more than just a place to implant structure. It became a source of comfort due partly to being able to converse with others about “the struggle.”
As an eighth-grade boarding cadet, Holmes initially had an assortment of roommates in Junior School, “because they moved us around until we could get along.” In Senior School, he started out in a four-man room with Peter Parmenter ‘83, Michael Bergt ‘83, and Marc Sawl and finished in a two-man room with David Pomerantz.
Sadly, Holmes only attended Farragut for two full turns through the academic calendar. He said he would have surely finished and experienced everything the school had to offer but his father, David Holmes, a Marine who had become a public school teacher, wanted “more boxing and less sailing.”
Having come from a family of service — his dad being a public servant in multiple ways and his grandfather being one of America’s most successful diplomats of the 20th century, Holmes somewhat understood why his father decided to send him to the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas, which presented a more rigid schedule (besides a schedule that included boxing).
“My father just thought I needed something tougher,” said Holmes, who admits he has no regrets.
Truth be told, he had already re-established a path he began to engineer at an early age.
“I knew from before I set foot at Farragut that I wanted to become a commissioned officer and serve the country,” Holmes said. “I just needed some straightening out. I was some kid from a small town with a sad story and I was on a road to failure.”
Once he realized he wasn’t in it alone, Holmes thrived at Farragut. He joined the drill team. He embraced the military tradition. He used the structure to go from “technically failing” to a Radford Star recipient in his ninth grade year. He sailed. Often, “as often as I could to a point where some of my friends and I would have to be called off the water during rough seas.”
More importantly, though, he relished the camaraderie, the sense of togetherness, the emphasis on perseverance.
“There’s something about Farragut that’s almost hard to put into words,” Holmes said. “There’s something to be said about waking up together on that incredible campus, having reveille, eating breakfast together, going to class together, special activities, sports, drill. Sure, it wasn’t as strict as the place I eventually went but the structure imposed on us made us learn. We were held to a standard where you either did your work or you didn’t. One of the things imposed on us early on was the adage of ‘no excuse.’ If you did something wrong, right away you said, ‘No excuse.’ You stuck to it and became a better person because of it. Farragut has a track record for success due to it.”
Despite leaving after only two years, Holmes believes Farragut was the life-changer for him.
“It’s where I needed to be,” Holmes said. “It put me back on the road where I knew I was destined to be.”
Holmes ultimately went to the University of Texas in Austin after graduating from the Marine Military Academy, where he went on an Army ROTC scholarship and received a degree in history. He enlisted in the Army in 1985 as a cavalry scout and, within three years, was promoted to Infantry 2nd Lieutenant for the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division. He would serve in the Army, both active and as a part of the National Guard, up until his last tour in Afghanistan in 2009. Since, he has made it a mission to serve his state and the nation in a different way.
“I believe I owe it to my family, friends and my community to serve them in office,” said Holmes, married with three daughters all in their twenties. “I’m trying to create a region where we want it to be, working with experts in the area who understand this region more than anyone else.”
His platform is focused on seven critical areas for a region roughly the size of Massachusetts. Primarily, Holmes wants to either change or improve on these key points: education, water, roads/bridges (transportation infrastructure), veteran employment, open elections, health care, and job creation.
“Yes, there is plenty of rhetoric on the presidential front but what happens here locally isn’t influenced much from the top,” said Holmes, who is running as a Democrat but is still registered as an Independent.
Holmes has used his military training to tap into the concerns of people.
“I was involved in information operations and I understand how to effectively gauge the political makeup of people,” said Holmes, who had been a Republican until becoming an Independent five years ago. “It’s important for such a large area to understand who the influencers are. Then, it’s critical to ask what changes are necessary and how I would be able to make a difference.”
After the August 30 primaries, Holmes and fellow Democrat Jason Lindstrom will face off against two winners of the four-horse race between Republicans Dennis Barger, Drew John, Becky Ann Nutt, and Anthony Sizer.