Born a southern boy to a pastor and a school district worker, Ian was raised out in the sticks in "Middle-Of-Nowhere, Texas", surrounded by farms and small communities you hear about in the country songs. His family is a loving family, where he was raised in a house that supported him through whatever avenue he decided to take. From a young age, from both his momma working in the school district, to his father being a pastor, to being active in the church, Ian was raised with a servant's heart from the start. He has what he calls "a really big 'I Care' bone", and he just can't turn it off. That servant's heart lead him to take an interest in medicine from a young age, pestering the family Doctor about everything that he was talking about, inundating him with question after question. That desire carried on all the way to middle school, where his personality started coming into it's own, and he was a gentle soul in a world where kids could be cruel, so "friends" isn't something that was a part of his normal lexicon. He just kind of kept to himself, and just tried to make the best of it.

Things continued on to high school, where Ian started to form his ideals, and what he wants from the world. His parents didn't work in the most lucrative fields, so he had to study hard if he wanted to get into any kind of college or university for schooling, cause he was way to broke to pay for it on his own. And that he did, becoming a book worm, never really going out, keeping his nose to the grinder and staying focused. He was gifted with a good degree of intelligence from a young age, so all of that work saw him accel above his peers, and he had everything lined up to get into his first pick school once he got to that point. He was almost a shoo in.

And then his junior year of high school started. August, 2001. He stayed focused, stayed working hard, and thought he knew exactly what he was going to do after high school, and he was determined to manifest that dream. The counselor was starting to sit down with him in the beginning of September, 2001, and started to plan his academic future.

We all know what happened in September 2001. On that fateful day, where the nation cried out in pain, Ian watched in horror from his classroom, seeing the carnage and destruction live on candid camera. As hard as the network tried, they couldn't hide the jumpers, the people choosing to die quickly as opposed to the slow death of fire. His servant's heart wept for those people, unable to be helped and that they had to make that decision. Now, Ian is a gentle soul. He wouldn't hurt a fly. He prefers to let the abuse and the insults just wash off his back, and just keep his head down. But for the first time in his life, Ian felt fury. He felt angry that someone would come in to his proverbial house, and hurt his proverbial family. The people he had devoted his life to help.

Funny how plans can change in an instant, isn't it?

Ian found himself in the Air Force recruiter's office the day he could get there, when things settled down enough for them to open up again. He started looking for jobs, for a way to pitch in and help those going to avenge his family, because he couldn't help the people he saw on the TV screen. He asked the recruiter for a list of every medical job that he qualified for, and started looking over the job descriptions. His dad was a medic during Desert Storm/Desert Shield, so why couldn't Ian do something similar? As he was skimming through the list, he had one job catch his eye. "Pararescue". Special Operations paramedics on three different flavors of steroids, dedicated to go anywhere, and do anything necessary, "So That Others May Live". Ian knew immediately that there was nothing else he cared for, and that's what he was going to do.

So he trained, and he worked out, and he trained some more, and then he (surprise) worked out even more. He threw the dedication he placed in his school at the regimen required to make it as a PJ. And the fateful day came where he shipped out for basic training, and he threw the dedication he manifested into his training there too. He had a one track mind, and that was to go save those people. He passed basic, and then went on to technical school. It was a year long of training, where he was pushed to his mental and physical limit, and he learned things about himself that he wouldn't otherwise, and grew up a lot in a very short time. But that intensity and that dedication stayed. And he earned that Pararescue badge. His parents came to the graduation, and there wasn't a family on earth more proud than the Holidays.

He went to his first unit, the 66th Rescue Squadron, where he immediately was assigned to the team working up for the next deployment out, destination: Iraq. The deployment came and went, with struggles around every corner, and a brother or two who only got to make it home in spirit, and Ian's positive view of the world crumbled. He saw the horrors of war, and was hardened. But that same dedication, that same intensity that got him to the place he was today, still burned bright. He came home, enjoyed his R&R, and walked right back into work ready to do it all again.

While he was at home station, not on work up, not on deployment, just going about his day, an email advertisement for the Surgical Career Broadening program came in. It offered him a chance to work with a surgical operations squadron, with the end goal being more insight and knowledge into higher level care. After bringing it up with a mentor, he applied, and got accepted. They sent him into a team at home base, and as luck would have it, they were working up for a deployment there as well. So off he went, this time to Afghanistan, 455th Surgical Operations Squadron, Bagram Air Base. He worked as an ER and Surgical Technician at the Role 3 field hospital. He would treat more of the minor wounds, however his primary focus was in the operation room, where he would assist in trauma surgeries from hell. 18 year olds fresh out of high school coming in two legs shorter, the 30 year old Master Sergeant with kids at home having time of death called, he saw it all. More importantly, however, he found a passion. He THRIVED in trauma, where he was able to just focus on recognizing and treating injuries as they came. He found a mentor there that inspired him, Maj. David Thompson, who nurtured that passion into something greater; a purpose. He made a friend, then a brother, in another medic in the squadron, Daniel "Fletch" Ryker. They called him Fletch cause that's the sound he made barfing at the Christmas party back at home station. They became inseparable, attached at the hip, and got to the point where they were referred to as a collective. They called them "Too Easy", as that was the motto they had adopted to facetiously complain about the general state of things, better known as "The Suck".

Fletch never made it back home. Late at night, after a shift in the OR, they were on their way to the mess tent, when they rounded a corner and met with the worst situation they could think of. A wire jumper, someone who had snuck onto the facility, wearing a grenade vest and carrying an old handgun, who was only there to cause death and destruction. As fast as Ian could, he drew the service weapon that all deployed servicemembers are required to have, and fired. The round impacted right between the eyes, taking out the jumper that couldn't have been older than 20. As the adrenaline wore off, he looked towards Fletch to see if he was okay, and he wasn't there. He was on the ground, shot in the chest, and bleeding out from a severed aorta, arterial spray spurting out of him like a squirt gun. Ian barely had enough time to realize what it was he was looking at before he saw the life leave his brother's eyes. He did his best to resuscitate, but in the medical world, Fletch had reached a state of what's called "Obvious Mortality". That is, he was dead no matter what, and it was pretty obvious, even to someone who isn't a doctor.

The rest of the deployment went by in a haze, same with the return home and reintegration into society. Everything seemed to be so temporary, so fleeting, that it was hard for him to find meaning in anything. The wife that he had married towards the beginning of his career, who had stuck by him for all 5 years prior, left. He wasn't the Ian she knew anymore. Ian went through the motions for another five years, trying to find meaning in what he did, and didn't see anything. Let's say it was a low point. He got out after 10 years in July 2012. On his way out, he sent an email to his mentor, thanking him for his teachings in the short time they were together, and letting him know he was on the way out. Maj. Thompson said in an email reply, congratulating him on a successful career, something that stuck with Ian for the rest of his life.

"If I don't see you with a white coat on in 8 years, I have failed you. In our world, you either win or you learn, and every hospital on earth needs someone like you. Too Easy, right?"

In that moment, it was like reality snapped back into perspective for Ian. Like someone putting on glasses for the first time, and experiencing true clarity. That passion, that dedication that Ian swore died with Fletch, came back. And it came back burning like a wildfire. Ian applied to Texas Christian University the next day, and was accepted. He studied his ass off, with a passion and a fervor reserved usually for a cult. He sought help for the demons that haunt him, so that he can come to terms with the faces that hide behind his eyelids, and seek retribution in his nightmares. He graduated with honors, and was accepted into Texas A&M College of Medicine, where he did it all again, and graduated from there too, as a Doctor of Medicine with a specialty in Emergency Medicine and Traumatic Surgery. The day of his graduation, now Colonel Thompson attended, and did the honor of putting on Ian's white coat for the first time. With that honor, and that white coat, Col Thompson came with one more gift. A KIA bracelet in honor of Fletch, and a necklace made from his reserve pair of dog tags. "Take him with you on your journey. Too Easy, right?".

Dr. Holiday is in Residency at Mount Zonah Medical Center, with his eyes set on being the best damn Emergency Physician he can be. He plans on starting a fellowship in Orthopedic Surgery after residency.

"You either win or you learn."
"You look like you don't know whether to scratch your watch or wind your ass."
"Lord willin' and the creek don't rise"