HOLM, ARNOLD EDWARD JR.
Name: Arnold Edward Holm, Jr. Rank/Branch: O3/US Army Unit: Date of Birth: 05 March 1944 (New London CT) Home City of Record: Waterford CT Date of Loss: 11 June 1972 Country of Loss: South Vietnam Loss Coordinates: 162326N 1072407E (YD565135) Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered Category: 3 Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: OH6A Refno: 1874
Source: Compiled from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK in 2007.
Other Personnel In Incident: Wayne Bibbs; Robin R. Yeakley (missing from one OH6A); James E. Hackett; James R. McQuade, Richard D. Wiley (missing from second OH6A).
REMARKS: EXPLODE - NO PARABEEPERS - J
SYNOPSIS: By December 1971, U.S. troops in-country had declined dramatically - from the 1968 peak of nearly 55,000 to less than 30,000. The enemy, temporarily on the defensive by the moves into Cambodia in 1970 and Laos in 1971, began deploying new NVA forces southward in preparation for another major offensive.
In March 1972, the Vietnamese launched a three-pronged invasion of the South. One NVA force swept south across the DMZ, its goal apparently the conquest of the northern provinces and the seizure of Hue. A second NVA force drove from Laos into the Central Highlands, and a third effort involved a drive from Cambodia into provinces northwest of Saigon.
Fierce fighting ensued on all three fronts, with NVA success the greatest in the northern provinces. Fighting continued until by June, the North Vietnamese began withdrawing from some of their advance positions, still holding considerable amounts of South Vietnamese territory in the northern provinces.
On June 11, 1972, Capt. Arnold Holm, pilot, PFC Wayne Bibbs, gunner, and SP4 Robin Yeakley, passenger, were aboard an OH6A observation helicopter flying from Camp Eagle to the Northern Provinces of South Vietnam on a visual reconnaissance mission. The function of their "Loach" chopper was searching out signs of the enemy around two landing zones (LZ's). The OH6 joined with the AH1G Cobra gunship as "Pink Teams" to screen the deployment of air cavalry troops. On this day, Holm's aircraft was monitoring an ARVN team insertion.
During the mission, Holm reported that he saw enemy living quarters, bunkers, and numerous trails. On his second pass over a ridge, at about 25' altitude, the aircraft exploded and burned. It was reported that before the aircraft crashed that smoke and white phosphorous grenades began exploding. After the aircraft impacted with the ground, it exploded again. Other aircraft in the area received heavy anti-aircraft fire. No one was seen to exit the downed helicopter, nor were emergency radio beepers detected.
In another OH6A (tail #67-16275), 1Lt. James R. McQuade, pilot, and SP4 James E. Hackett, gunner, tried to enter the area of the crashed OH6A, but encountered heavy fire and their aircraft was also shot down. McQuade's aircraft was hit, and the intensity of the resulting fire caused white phosphorous and smoke grenades carried aboard the aircraft to explode prior to hitting the ground. The aircraft continued to burn after impact and no crewmen left the ship before or after the crash.
No ground search was made for survivors or remains of either aircraft because of hostile fire in the area.
There are unanswered questions remaining from Vietnam. Of the nearly 2500 Americans who did not return alive or dead, experts venture that hundreds may still be alive. Thousands of reports have been received concerning them. Whether the two OH6A crews are among those seems unlikely. But one can imagine their willingness to deploy on one more combat team to bring those who are alive home to freedom.
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Search for missing Waterford native to resume in Vietnam Remains of Arnold Holm may be in different location
By Robert A. Hamilton Published on 12/03/2002
A Pentagon team, armed with new information about the site where Waterford native Arnold E. Holm Jr. was shot down over Vietnam in 1972, will search for remains in a recovery effort next spring.
For 20 years the recovery teams have been concentrating on an area identified in combat reports, but it now appears those reports were off by almost two miles. Holm's helicopter went down within 1,000 feet of another helicopter shot down the same day. The second helicopter was located about 9,500 feet to the southwest.
The Pentagon team is slated to return to Vietnam April 6 to June 17 of next year to search for remains, and the Holm crash site is one of those it will be checking, according to documents released to William Cavalieri, a classmate of Holm from Waterford High School who has been lobbying for a renewed look at the case.
"I feel 100 percent confident that if there is something to find, they are going to find it," said Cavalieri.
"What bothers me is that they should have been looking at this site since at least 1993. We should have had him back 10 years ago."
Larry Greer, a spokesman for the Department of Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Office (DPMO), said that Holm's widow, Margarete Holm of Lebanon, Pa., will be brought up to date on new developments in the case this week.
"She's going to be briefed on the plan in great detail on Wednesday," Greer said. "I would hate to inadvertently release something before we've shared it with her."
Mrs. Holm could not be reached for comment Monday.
Holm, a prominent athlete at Waterford High School in the late 1950s and early 1960s, enlisted in the Army in 1962, the year he graduated, and later earned a commission and was trained as a helicopter pilot. His aircraft was shot down on June 11, 1972, in Hue Province, and a second helicopter piloted by 1st Lt. James McQuade, sent in to look for survivors, was shot down a short distance away.
In addition to Holm, two enlisted men, Pfc. Class Wayne Bibbs of Blue Island, Ill., and Cpl. Robin R. Yeakley of South Bend, Ind., were in the chopper. Spec. 4 James E. Hackett was killed in the McQuade crash.
On May 15, 1993, a team was sent in to look for the helicopters in the area identified by others in the battle, but found nothing. In 1996 and again this year there were efforts to find the crash site, also to no avail. All three teams concluded that the rugged terrain and dense jungle growth would foil any recovery attempt.
McQuade's helicopter was found, however, on May 18, 1993. Villagers who had found a St. Christopher's medal with McQuade's name engraved on the back turned it over to investigators and guided them to the site, where the investigators found other personal effects, as well as some teeth and skeletal remains.
In contrast to the area searched three days earlier, McQuade's helicopter was found in an area with easy access - a one-minute walk from a landing zone that is about 30 minutes from Hue, in a small knoll on a valley floor.
But the 1996 and 2002 searches both started from the original grid coordinates, because no one ever cross-referenced the two cases.
According to documents Cavalieri received from DPMO at a conference in Florida, the Army is going to provide reconnaissance photographs of three square kilometers around the actual area of the McQuade crash site taken June 11 and 12, 1972, in an attempt to locate the Holm crash.
"From all accounts, the two aircraft crashed in almost the same location," Cavalieri said. "When they got to the McQuade site, you would think there would have been someone who said, `Wait a minute, there should be another aircraft right around here.'
"I don't understand what took so long for someone to connect the two cases," Cavalieri said.
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Vietnam MIA honored Family, friends and townspeople hear what's being done to find Arnold Holm.
By RAY HACKETT Norwich Bulletin 5 April 2003
WATERFORD -- Bill Cavalieri stood at the fence looking out over the football field, his face buried in his hands hiding the tears.
It was here some 40 years ago that he and his friend and classmate Arnold Holm did battle on the gridiron as co-captains of the Waterford High School Lancers football team.
But his thoughts Friday were of another field of battle half a world away. On June 11, 1972, Army Capt. Arnold Holm was shot down over Vietnam. His body and that of his crew never were recovered.
"I was his best man at his wedding," Cavalieri said Friday.
Cavalieri, who lives in Florida, returned to his alma mater Friday, joining others from the class of 1962 and Holm's widow, Margarete, Holm's daughter, Jennifer Cooper, and her two children, Cassidy and Nicholas, for an emotional homecoming of sorts.
They had come to the high school to hear a briefing by officials from the Defense Department POW/Missing Personnel Office on the ongoing efforts to recover Holm's remains. An investigative unit from the Joint Task Force -- Full Accountability will launch a third attempt later this month at finding the site where Holm's helicopter crashed nearly 31 years ago.
Two briefings were held at the Waterford Town Hall Friday, an afternoon session attended by more than 200 high school students and an evening session for the public. Another 200 people attended that session.
Holm's daughter thanked those who attended on behalf of the family. She told the crowd she was only 4 when her father died, and over the last six months has learned more about him from those who cared so deeply for him.
"We're in the right direction now," U.S. Navy Lt. Thom Petrella, a member of the DPMO staff, told the gatherings. "We believe that we now have the best information, the best intelligence and we believe we're going to find the site and bring Capt. Holm back home here to Waterford."
The DPMO routinely makes such presentations to the families of those still missing. U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, arranged for the Waterford hearings at the request of Holm's family and friends.
"It is their unswerving faith that their government would being him back home," Simmons said. "Without their involvement, we probably wouldn't be having this presentation today."
For this small coastline community, Holm was a young man of great promise who made a mark on all those who knew him. Captain of the high school football, basketball and baseball teams, he was active in his church and community.
"He was probably one of the most caring individuals I have ever known," First Selectman Paul Eccard, who attended the same church as Holm, said. "I can't tell you what this has meant for this community. People are constantly coming to my office asking how the search is going."
In large part, this new attempt at locating Holm's crash site is because of Cavalieri and students from the high school civics class. Meeting with the students to talk about Holm last year, Cavalieri asked them to help.
"There were four other helicopter pilots flying with Arnie that day," Cavalieri said, "and these kids, using a computer, found all four of them. And because of that, we now think we know exactly where Arnie's crash site is."
For Holm's widow, Friday was more than just a day to be briefed by the government. With her daughter, grandchildren, and her husband's sister, Margaret Brewster, they toured the high school.
They walked the halls where he walked, visiting the old gym where he played and viewed the trophies bearing his name mounted behind glass. The high school band played for them in the school's music room, bringing more tears to eyes.
"The effort that went into this by the students, the teachers, Arnie's classmates, the town, it goes beyond touching," Margarete Holm said. "The caring, the number of people who still remember him. When I die, if I achieve a small portion of that, then I will have lived a full life."
The school's main lobby had two displays -- a tribute to Holm and one to 1999 Waterford High School graduate, Marine Cpl. Kemaphoom Chanawongse, who was reported missing in action March 23 in Iraq.
Eccard read a letter from Chanawongse's mother during the evening session, saying how proud she was to live in a town and a country that was committed to returning those who have fought for this country.
"It's so sad," Margarete Holm said. "To think, of all the towns in the country, that here there would be two from this school. I know how the family must feel."
===================== Vietnam MIA pilot may be found after 30 years April 6, 2003 Eyewitness News via www.wfsb.com
WATERFORD -- For nearly 31 years, a Waterford man has been struggling to discover what happened to his best friend, missing in action in Vietnam. Now, there is new hope in the search.
Arnie Holm has been missing in action since his plane went down in Vietnam in June of 1972. Since then, his best friend Bill Cavalieri has been fighting to find his remains and bring them home to Waterford. Cavalieri and others gathered Friday to remember Holm and renew their commitment to the search.
Cavalieri : "No information for 30 years, 30 and a half years. And then a wealth of information."
The wealth of information came from a civics class at the high school that Cavalieri spoke to about his search.
"I mentioned that I needed their help, That I couldn't do this any longer by myself. I was one voice."
Within one week, those kids got on the Internet and worked their magic. They found all three pilots. With information supplied by a pilot familiar with the incident, the Defense Department now has the exact location of the crash and is going back to search the site.
What's kept Cavalieri going all this time?
"My friendship with him. . . . I was the best man at his wedding, and I loved the man. And [I] certainly know he would do the same for me. But it's been a very very frustrating experience.
Even after over 30 years, Cavalieri never gave up hope.
"My goal, my dream, is to bring his remains back to Waterford, right out to that football field and to have a memorial service to honor him for what he did. . . . [then] get on a train and accompany his body to Arlington and give the proper military burial he deserves. Simple as that."
All content c Copyright 2001 - 2003 WorldNow and WFSB
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Vietnam MIA honored Family, friends and townspeople hear what's being done to find Arnold Holm. By RAY HACKETT Norwich Bulletin
WATERFORD -- Bill Cavalieri stood at the fence looking out over the football field, his face buried in his hands hiding the tears.
It was here some 40 years ago that he and his friend and classmate Arnold Holm did battle on the gridiron as co-captains of the Waterford High School Lancers football team.
But his thoughts Friday were of another field of battle half a world away. On June 11, 1972, Army Capt. Arnold Holm was shot down over Vietnam. His body and that of his crew never were recovered.
"I was his best man at his wedding," Cavalieri said Friday.
Cavalieri, who lives in Florida, returned to his alma mater Friday, joining others from the class of 1962 and Holm's widow, Margarete, Holm's daughter, Jennifer Cooper, and her two children, Cassidy and Nicholas, for an emotional homecoming of sorts.
They had come to the high school to hear a briefing by officials from the Defense Department POW/Missing Personnel Office on the ongoing efforts to recover Holm's remains. An investigative unit from the Joint Task Force -- Full Accountability will launch a third attempt later this month at finding the site where Holm's helicopter crashed nearly 31 years ago.
Two briefings were held at the Waterford Town Hall Friday, an afternoon session attended by more than 200 high school students and an evening session for the public. Another 200 people attended that session.
Holm's daughter thanked those who attended on behalf of the family. She told the crowd she was only 4 when her father died, and over the last six months has learned more about him from those who cared so deeply for him.
"We're in the right direction now," U.S. Navy Lt. Thom Petrella, a member of the DPMO staff, told the gatherings. "We believe that we now have the best information, the best intelligence and we believe we're going to find the site and bring Capt. Holm back home here to Waterford."
The DPMO routinely makes such presentations to the families of those still missing. U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, arranged for the Waterford hearings at the request of Holm's family and friends.
"It is their unswerving faith that their government would being him back home," Simmons said. "Without their involvement, we probably wouldn't be having this presentation today."
For this small coastline community, Holm was a young man of great promise who made a mark on all those who knew him. Captain of the high school football, basketball and baseball teams, he was active in his church and community.
"He was probably one of the most caring individuals I have ever known," First Selectman Paul Eccard, who attended the same church as Holm, said. "I can't tell you what this has meant for this community. People are constantly coming to my office asking how the search is going."
In large part, this new attempt at locating Holm's crash site is because of Cavalieri and students from the high school civics class. Meeting with the students to talk about Holm last year, Cavalieri asked them to help.
"There were four other helicopter pilots flying with Arnie that day," Cavalieri said, "and these kids, using a computer, found all four of them. And because of that, we now think we know exactly where Arnie's crash site is."
For Holm's widow, Friday was more than just a day to be briefed by the government. With her daughter, grandchildren, and her husband's sister, Margaret Brewster, they toured the high school.
They walked the halls where he walked, visiting the old gym where he played and viewed the trophies bearing his name mounted behind glass. The high school band played for them in the school's music room, bringing more tears to eyes.
"The effort that went into this by the students, the teachers, Arnie's classmates, the town, it goes beyond touching," Margarete Holm said. "The caring, the number of people who still remember him. When I die, if I achieve a small portion of that, then I will have lived a full life."
The school's main lobby had two displays -- a tribute to Holm and one to 1999 Waterford High School graduate, Marine Cpl. Kemaphoom Chanawongse, who was reported missing in action March 23 in Iraq.
Eccard read a letter from Chanawongse's mother during the evening session, saying how proud she was to live in a town and a country that was committed to returning those who have fought for this country.
"It's so sad," Margarete Holm said. "To think, of all the towns in the country, that here there would be two from this school. I know how the family must feel."
rhackett@norwichbulletin.com Originally published Saturday, April 5, 2003 Copyright c2003 Norwich Bulletin
---------------------------------------------------------- http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ctmia0725.artjul25,0,6170777.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
New Clues To An MIA's Remains
Gear Found On Ridge In Vietnam Could Point Way To Pilot From State Who Crashed In '72
By JESSE HAMILTON Courant Staff Writer
July 25 2006
The remains of a Connecticut soldier may soon be coming home - from Vietnam.
More than 34 years after he rode his helicopter in an explosive plunge into the Vietnam jungle, the wreckage from U.S. Army Capt. Arnold "Dusty" Holm's fatal descent has been discovered.
Probably.
U.S. teams never abandoned the search for the missing aircraft and its three-man crew, though trip after trip into the dense jungle had led nowhere. It had been so frustrating that the effort was about to be set aside to make room for other continuing searches for American remains in the remote areas of that country in Southeast Asia.
But this year, on July 7, search crews came across the last resting place of the little scout helicopter - and presumably that of the men aboard, including Holm from Waterford. Atop a ridge, in an area about the size of a football field, searchers discovered 34-year-old artifacts. Part of an M-16 rifle. A helmet. The cover of a log book. And perhaps most telling: evidence that this Hughes OH6A Cayuse helicopter, known as a Loach, had an unusual third seat.
There were three seats in the craft piloted by Holm, leader of a scout platoon in a unit known as the Blue Ghosts.
Wife Margarete Holm had never extinguished hope, herself, the spot would be found where her husband of six years had fallen. She had always felt the search for her husband and all other missing U.S. troops in Vietnam is a debt of honor. "We can't just leave them."
So, over the weekend, Holm went to an event in Syracuse, N.Y., for families of those missing in action. She was approached by an official from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. He was grinning. "I've got some really good news," he said.
The search crews were just emerging from weeks in the jungle and had sent word to him about the discovery.
"I was stunned," said Holm, who never remarried. "After all these years and after so many tries."
Tracking Mission
On June 11, 1972, Holm and two passengers, Pfc. Wayne Bibbs and Spec. Robin Yeakley, were tracking enemy movement in the Easter Offensive, a final major clash involving U.S. forces, as they were withdrawing from the war.
According to military reports, Holm, a highly decorated 28-year-old captain, had spotted enemy living quarters, bunkers and trails in this border country west of Hue. Then he reported being fired upon.
Highly maneuverable Loaches such as his were known for flying low, to get the closest possible look at the enemy. In this case, the helicopter was about 25 feet off the ground. It passed over a ridge and exploded. As the helicopter fell, witnesses saw more explosions, probably grenades carried within. When it slammed into the ground, it was shaken by another blast. Nobody was seen emerging from the fiery wreckage.
Another Loach raced toward the crash site of "Blue Ghost White," Holm's call sign, but that helicopter, too, was claimed in the fury of ground fire.
Years ago, the second helicopter was found and its crew returned home for burial. But Holm's helicopter wreckage remained missing. That was frustrating for Bill Cavalieri, best man at the wedding of Arnold and Margarete.
Cavalieri, who lives in Florida, took it upon himself to track down information about the final moments of his lost friend.
"He's never left my mind," Cavalieri said Monday. When records were declassified, he hunted for them, trying to tighten the circle around the possible crash site. "We always had a real close general vicinity where it was."
Then he enlisted a teacher and class from Waterford High School, where Arnold Holm had long ago been captain of the football, baseball and basketball teams. Brett Arnold and his students helped track down a witness to the crash, another pilot who could further narrow the search area, and they've since kept an active hand in the case. "We always share the story of Capt. Holm," Arnold said. "It's very much a part of everyday class."
In 2003, another search was organized. U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, whose 2nd Congressional District includes Waterford, decided to go along - his first trip back to the former war zone where he'd been an Army officer.
"I've put a lot of emotional energy into this case," he said. "It speaks to all veterans, that we want to bring our buddies home."
Though the search turned up a U.S. military watch, jungle boots, a military flashlight and some electrical parts, it was impossible to tell whether they were connected to the crash.
Zeroing In On The Ridge
In each search over the years, there had always been one detail missing. The crash story had mentioned a ridge, but none of the searches had focused on a ridge - until now. "They decided to take one last look," said Margarete Holms. On the nearest ridge, there it was.
Simmons had been only 2 kilometers away in 2003. When he announced the find Monday, he called the news "a wonderful breakthrough." But the search isn't over.
At the end of the rainy season next spring, a team of experts and laborers may trek to the spot and begin an excavation. But the military agency that handles such missions is still working on its budget for the coming year and is unable to confirm the recovery mission will happen then.
It is, because of the extreme acidity of Vietnamese soil, a race against nature. "Over decades, remains and other evidence tend to deteriorate fairly rapidly," said Troy Kitch, spokesman for the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command.
If it does happen, typical success stories end with bone fragments and teeth, enough for DNA technology to identify.
Simmons wants to be there. So does Cavalieri, for the end of this "emotional roller coaster ride."
If remains are found, and the family has something to bury in Arlington National Cemetery, they will first make a stop back in Connecticut - the home that the pilot, whose wife described him simply as "something that a lot of men want to be but are not," had meant to return to. Margarete Holm and Jennifer Cooper, their daughter who was 4 in 1972, will have a memorial service at a New London church, the same church where the Holms were married 40 years ago and where Arnold Holm was baptized.
There, his friends and family can finally set the Vietnam War in its rightful place: the past.
Contact Jesse Hamilton at jhamilton@courant.com. Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant
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Hartford Courant, The (CT) (KRT) July 28, 2006
Lost Pilot's Saga Persists Jesse Hamilton
Jul. 28--Knowing where U.S. Army Capt. Arnold "Dusty" Holm's remains can be found isn't enough.
Just because the military recovery teams have a good idea where Holm, from Waterford, and two crewmen crashed in a Vietnamese jungle 34 years ago doesn't mean their long-awaited return home will be this year. Or even next year.
Search teams this month discovered what appears to be the spot where Holm's scout helicopter smashed into the ground, downed by the fire of one of that war's last major battles. But going back to Vietnam in the spring, after the rainy season, will take money, diplomatic juggling with Vietnam and intensive effort from a U.S. military team.
There are, decades later, more than 1,800 servicemen listed as missing from that war. The military's Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office recovers several each year, and getting this particular case on their existing schedule for 2007 was U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons' goal Thursday.
The congressman, who represents Holm's hometown, met with defense officials and made "a verbal request that they add this site prep and excavation into this '07 plan." He added that such an addition should only be made "with the understanding that it not remove any other excavation from the schedule."
Simmons, who traveled to Vietnam three years ago and joined the search for the crash site, said he's uncertain how long it will take to get an answer. "I made the request, and I hope to get a positive response."
Though the site where the helicopter crashed isn't far from Hue, it is spread along both sides of a steep ridge. The jungle soils are acidic, consuming organic material quickly, usually leaving nothing more of human remains than scattered teeth and bones.
If remains from the crash are recovered, DNA experts will try to match them with the three helicopter occupants: Holm, Spec. Robin Yeakley and Pfc. Wayne Bibbs. That will be done in a lab in Hawaii, and it could take six to eight months, possibly delaying answers until 2008, Simmons said.
The congressman revealed more details Thursday about evidence recovered at the site. There was a cover from a log book or clipboard, he said, that was marked OH-6, the designation of a small helicopter, known as a Loach, that Holm was flying. There was evidence of an M-16 rifle, an M-79 grenade launcher and an M-60 machine gun. Teams of local laborers will be needed to clear the site and prepare it for weeks of excavation.
"Logistically, this is a big operation," Simmons said.
Bringing home the remains is the only way the brother of Wayne Bibbs, Andei, will believe his brother is truly dead. Andei Bibbs, 49, lives in Chicago and has never lost hope that his older brother may still be alive somewhere. "I'll never believe it until I have a body, some bones," he said. His parents, who shared that thought, have long since died, leaving him and one other brother the only immediate family members.
Like Holm's family, the Wayne Bibbs family has attended events for families of the missing and has lived in uncertainty. "He was a survivor," Andei Bibbs said of his brother. "If that's him, he went down fighting."
Witnesses of the 1972 crash described the craft going down, battered by explosions. Another helicopter crew racing in after it suffered the same fate. Its wreckage was found at a nearby site years ago; the remains of its two crewmen were recovered.
Simmons, who in 2003 was on one of many searches over the years for Holm's helicopter, came home with inconclusive evidence. "I was disappointed," he said. "The amazing thing was we were only about 200 meters away."
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JPAC Budget Shortfall Puts Holm Recovery on Hold 'til 2008
27 July, 2006 Search for remains of Waterford man MIA in Vietnam War hits snag
By RAY HACKETT
NORWICH - The search for the remains of Waterford native Arnold Holm hit yet another snag today, stealing some of the joy that came with an announcement earlier this week his helicopter crash site had finally been found after 34 years.
The search for the remains of Holm and his two crewmen may have to wait until 2008.
Holm, a U.S. Army captain and helicopter pilot, was shot down June 11, 1972, over the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Four previous attempts in the last 13 years to locate the crash site proved unsuccessful. A fifth and final attempt made this year has apparently yielded sufficient evidence to suggest the site had been found.
But U.S. Rep Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, said the excavation of the crash site may be delayed a year because of a lack of funding in the Defense Department budget.
"Currently, it is not in the '07 plan," Simmons said in a telephone conference call after meeting with officials from the Department of Defense POW/Missing Office in Washington today. "I made an official request that this be added to the '07 plan, with the understanding that it not remove another excavation that is planned. I wouldn't want to do that to another family that is waiting."
Simmons said defense officials told him they would get back to him regarding the request, but gave no time frame as to when. ==================================================
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Waterford — After 35 years, the U.S. government may finally live up to its promise of “no man left behind” to the Holm family. Today is the 35th anniversary of the day that Waterford native Capt. Arnold E. Holm Jr. disappeared. Holm, nicknamed “Dusty,” had been flying reconnaissance in a small scout helicopter in Thua Thien-Hue province in central Vietnam, just north of Da Nang. Enemy fire sent him and his crewmates crashing through the jungle canopy. After several failed search attempts, the crash site was discovered last summer. Johnie E. Webb, deputy commander for support and external relations for Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, recently confirmed that Holm's site is now an alternate for excavation in 2007 and a primary site for 2008. A team may go to Vietnam as early as this summer to refine the perimeters of the site. “We owe it to the individuals who gave their lives for our country and our freedom to do all we can to bring them back to their homeland and families,” Webb said. Holm's sister, Margaret Brewster, called that “wonderful news.” “I'm just thankful that this is beginning to close now,” said Brewster, who lives in Cromwell. “I've lost just about all of my family and I've dealt with it. With him, I still picture him as 28 years old, coming home from Vietnam, and I have not been able to reconcile that.” The search for Holm and his two crewmates, Pfc. Wayne Bibbs of Illinois and Spc. Robin Yeakley of Indiana, may be nearing its end, but it was not long ago that budget cuts and a backlog of other cases stalled and almost stopped the effort. The JPAC search team declared that the July 2006 mission would be the last search for Holm. When Holm and his crew crashed in 1972, a rescue team went looking for them later the same day. “We started taking heavy fire and we tried to work around it but we couldn't,” said First Lt. Frank Walker, a scout pilot from another unit who helped look for them. Walker said they headed back to “refuel, rearm and regroup.” Walker and First Lt. James R. McQuade decided to try to approach the site from another direction. But the two pilots, who were in separate planes, came under heavy fire again. “I made the call to evacuate the area but Jim continued to fly,” said Walker, who now lives in Rock Hill, S.C. “He made a turn to come out and as he rolled out of his turn, he exploded midair. I flew over the wreckage and I was convinced, without a shadow of a doubt, that there was not a chance in the world that anyone could have survived, so we came back out.” The remains of McQuade and his crew were discovered in 1993. “We never did recover Dusty so I see it as unfinished business,” Walker said. JPAC later searched the area for Holm and his crew, but found nothing. The search effort gained momentum again in 2002, after Brett Arnold, a civics teacher at Waterford High School, and his students asked Rob Simmons, who was then the congressman representing the 2nd District, to step in. Simmons, a Vietnam veteran, agreed, and went along on a search mission in April 2003. The team was unsuccessful, and later learned that they were searching only about 200 meters away from the correct site. “There is always a sense of obligation when you serve in the military. You do everything in your power to protect your buddies and when a buddy falls, you bring them off the battlefield,” Simmons, now the state business advocate, said earlier this month. “The family will never have closure until the remains have been returned.” JPAC had enough funding for one more try. Flying overhead on July 7, 2006, the team spotted a debris field that matched the crew's last radio call. The key to identifying it as Holm's crash site was the discovery of a third seat, the kind built into a helicopter designed to accommodate only two people. Holm's helicopter was configured in this way. “To get the news last year that they finally found his crash site was an emotional day,” said Bill Cavalieri, Holm's best friend from his days at Waterford High School. “Then to hear that they could not schedule the excavation until at least 2008 was disheartening, to say the least.” When U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney was elected to represent the 2nd District, one of the first calls he received was from Brewster. “My predecessor did a great job as far as getting the ball rolling and we certainly want to make sure the effort continues,” Courtney said. “We are going to be following up with the Pentagon to make sure there is no slippage in terms of the schedule.” Webb, of JPAC, said the site is located in difficult terrain and a lot of clearing will be required. If discovered, the remains would have to go through a battery of DNA tests before they are given to the family. Both Simmons and Walker hope to take part in the excavation. Cavalieri, who lives in Tarpon Springs, Fla., said that if the JPAC team does not go to the site in 2008, he would. “My plan is to work with the Vietnamese government, go to Vietnam, hire a local guide to take me to the crash site and place a cross in his memory,” Cavalieri said. “That will give me the closure I need.” As a child, Paul Eccard, former first selectman of Waterford, went to church with Holm. Even then, he said he viewed Holm as a hero. “Whether it's this year or next, I'll be glad for the day when Arnie comes home,” he said. “Waterford will welcome him home. All of the people who were associated with him will be relieved, and at peace, when that day comes.” Holm's widow, Margarete, said that when her husband's remains return stateside, she will hold a memorial service at the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer in New London, where they were married in 1966 and where Holm was baptized, followed by a burial at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. “I get excited, but we'll just have to wait, and of
course there are two other sets of families who are really anxious to have
this solved,” said Margarete Holm, who lives in Lebanon, Penn. “We
can't just turn our backs on them and forget. They need to come home.” Waterford |
