Two pals joined a third buddy after serving as his pall-bearers during a Christmas holiday.

Richard James Mulholland was born in Watsonville, California, on August 26, 1928, to Mr. and Mrs. Maurice J. Mulholland. Richard spent his formative years in the Pajaro Valley and attended Watsonville elementary schools. At an early age his parents divorced and his father remarried providing him with two half sisters and a half brother. During his high school years, Mulholland moved to Carmel where he attended Carmel High School and played on the football team.

In 1948 Richard Mulholland enlisted in the United States Navy for a three-year hitch that was extended to four due to the Korean War. The naval vessel or facility to which Richard Mulholland was attached is not known. During his naval service, he attained the rank of petty officer third class.

Petty Officer Mulholland returned home in December 1951 for the Christmas holidays and was looking forward to spending time with his family and his Carmel High School buddy, Nelson S. Byers, an Annapolis midshipman. During that leave, the two friends were called to serve as pallbearers at the funeral of Dennis MacKenzie, a friend who had been a West Point cadet.

When the time came for the two young men to return to their respective naval units, Byers arranged a flight for both of them aboard an army C-47 transport. On December 30, 1951, the plane crashed into the Superstition Mountains of Arizona and all aboard were killed. The location of Richard Mulholland's remains has not been identified.

(CBR; WRP, January 7, 1952 9:1)