News-Info-Alerts

Re: Family Hopes to Bring Him Home

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: October 10, 2002

"Family, friends hope to bring Capt. Holm home from Vietnam War
By Robert A. Hamilton

Thirty years after the helicopter of Army Capt. Arnold Holm of Waterford smashed into the jungles of Vietnam, pressure is mounting to find and bring home his remains.

His widow has gone to Washington to lobby for a recovery effort, and is pressing the Pentagon to reopen the search. A childhood friend, William Cavalieri, who now lives in Florida, is rallying friends to begin a letter-writing campaign to Congress.

Cavalieri said he was upset by a Pentagon report, written after a recovery mission this year, which said in part that the area of the crash was not investigated because it was too far into the jungle.

“It's disgusting. They know where it is, they've gotten close to it, but the last report I read said it was a two-mile walk into dense jungle and the remains were really unrecoverable,” Cavalieri said. “That's ridiculous — a two-mile walk into the jungle is nothing compared to what Arnie and these other men gave to their country.”

“I'm sure they are doing the best they can, but in some instances they seem to be looking a little harder than in others, and I just want to make sure Arnold is not forgotten,” said Margrete Holm, Capt. Holm's widow. “I just want to make sure that things are done.”

This week, a quarterly case conference hosted by the Department of Defense POW-MIA Office will meet to review cases that warrant further inspection.

“His is one of the cases that they will discuss,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Erstfeld, a spokesman for the office. Earlier searches might not have focused on the right area, he said, because Capt. Holm's helicopter was said to have gone down within 300 meters of another helicopter, which was found.

“There is some talk about perhaps going back to take another look at that other helicopter crash site, because of the possibility of an overlap of remains,” Erstfeld said. “We pursue all cases until we feel that no further pursuit is possible.”

Joe Bell, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, said Simmons, as a Vietnam veteran, is particularly interested in the case. The staff has begun to look into the matter, and will contact U.S. Rep. George W. Gekas, R-Pa., who represents the district where Mrs. Holm now lives.

“I think we need to put our heads together and see if there is something we can do together,” Bell said. “Congressman Simmons very much supports the recovery effort. He's glad the

recovery teams are there year after year, and he is going to continue to support funding for them.”

Margaret Brewster of Cromwell supports the effort to bring her younger brother back from Vietnam, even if only symbolically. When she read news reports of families of victims from the World Trade Center attack coping with the trauma of not having a body to bury, all the emotions her family experienced 30 years ago came rushing back.

“You just can't close the door,” Brewster said. “He wanted to be buried at Arlington, and I think that's the thing that would help bring closure to our family, even if it was just his dog tags. Something. Anything.”

Three-star athlete

The Holm family lived on Tiffany Avenue in Waterford. His sister was 14 years older, and became like a second mother to him. By the time he started talking, she said, he loved sports.

“I remember when I was in high school we lived across from Mercer Field in New London, and I used to put him in a stroller and bring him over to watch the guys play football, and he would be hollering ‘tackle, tackle,' ” Brewster said. “I guess he just loved the action.

“From the time he was very young he was able to throw a ball and hit a ball,” she said. “It was all very natural for him.”

He played on Little League, Babe Ruth and American Legion teams. In high school, he lettered in baseball, football and basketball, and he was an honor student. Fran X. Sweeney, the first athletic director and longtime basketball coach at Waterford High School, convinced Springfield College to give him a full scholarship after he graduated in 1962.

“He's my hero,” Sweeney said. “Baseball was his favorite sport, but he was good at whatever he played. He was captain of all three sports his senior year. He was more of an adult than he was a kid — he could relate real well to his fellow students, and to his coaches.”

But in the middle of his first semester in college, Holm left school and enlisted in the Army, without ever talking to Sweeney.

“He probably didn't want to face me, but he shouldn't have felt like that,” Sweeney said. “He probably figured I went all out and did my best to get him there. But it didn't hurt my feelings. He did what he felt he should do.”

“But I never saw him again,” Sweeney said.

“But if they find him, whether they bury him in Waterford or Arlington, I'll be there,” Sweeney said. “It was a great loss to me.”

‘Killed in action'

As an enlisted man, Holm quickly advanced to tank commander in Company C, 68th Armor, Eighth Infantry Division in Germany. That was where he met Margrete Jerosch. They were married in 1966, and had a daughter, Jennifer, two years later.

He earned a field commission, and was trained to fly the OH-6A Cayuse, designed as a military scout aircraft. Light and extremely maneuverable, it was what the Army needed over the jungle and river valleys of that country. And so he headed to Southeast Asia.

Mrs. Holm has pictures of her husband in Vietnam, always smiling, looking relaxed, often dressed only in a T-shirt or bare-chested in the tropical heat.

One afternoon in the spring of 1972, as the war in Vietnam escalated, Mrs. Holm was preparing to go in to her job at the Officers' Club at Ft. Knox, Ky. The night manager had called in sick and she had agreed to work. She was nearly ready to leave when she saw the base chaplain coming up her front walk.

“It's one of your nightmares as a military wife, to open the door and see the chaplain standing there,” Mrs. Holm said. Initially, she was told he was listed as missing in action. Within days, the designation was changed to killed in action. The family had a service at the Lutheran church in New London to say goodbye.

Nearly a quarter-century would pass before declassified reports would show why the Department of Defense agreed to list Capt. Holm as killed in action. Cavalieri said when the secret status of those files were lifted, he spent days poring over microfiche in Washington, D.C.

Cavalieri moved from New London to Tiffany Avenue when he was about 12 years old. He and Holm became fast friends. They were co-captains of the high school football team. Cavalieri was the best man at Holm's wedding.

Cavalieri was surprised at how detailed an accounting was available from witnesses in the area at the time.

Capt. Holm's helicopter had taken heavy fire in Hue Province. A direct hit caused a fire that sent it spiraling into the jungle. Upon impact, phosphorous grenades and ammunition exploded. The helicopter was engulfed in flames. No one was seen exiting the aircraft. In addition to Capt. Holm, two enlisted men, Pvt. 1st Class Wayne Bibbs of Blue Island, Ill., and Cpl. Robin R. Yeakley of South Bend, Ind., were in the chopper.

A second helicopter that went in to attempt a rescue was also shot down. Facing heavy fire, other aircraft in the area were ordered back.

The family was particularly surprised at one particular detail that was available in the declassified file.

“When I finally got the records on the microfiche, I was surprised to see that the actual coordinates were right there, so they knew where it was,” Cavalieri said. “And there were eyewitness accounts from the other pilotswho were flying in the area.”

‘Triple canopy jungle'

By the time Cavalieri checked the records, there had been two recovery teams — in 1993 and 1996 — that were close to where Capt. Holm went down.

“A brief surface search of the area was conducted with negative results,” stated the 1993 report. “The aircraft wreckage, which has now had 20 years of jungle growth covering it, will be nearly impossible to find without a guide to the actual site. No known guide exist (sic) at this time.”

“All leads have been exhausted for this case,” the report said. “Recommend no further joint field investigations.”

A search-and-recovery specialist commented in a separate opinion: “This site can be excavated using a standard personnel and equipment configuration within 14 to 21 days. Extra machetes and screens will be needed. Ten to 15 local laborers will also be needed. A landing zone would have to be established within the area of the site if possible.”

But even the specialist notes, “recommend no further activity at this site.”

Three years later, another team reached a similar conclusion after another brief inspection.

“The region is triple canopy jungle, heavy undergrowth, and uninhabited. No evidence of wreckage was observed but the area was heavily overgrown. No witnesses were identified and no records were discovered correlating to this case. The remains of the crew should be declared unrecoverable.”

This year, a third attempt to find the site failed as well. The Joint U.S.-Vietnam investigation team arrived in Thua Thien, Hue Province, on June 13 to investigate eight cases, but it never got near the Holm crash site.

“The central government reported the advance team could not find any witnesses and the site to be surveyed was an eight-hour walk from the LZ (landing zone),” the report states. “The advance team could not go to the site because the route takes two days and there was no one to guide the team.”

“That was the one thing that jumped off the page and really got to me,” Cavalieri said. “When you read it, you get angry. So it's a two-mile walk from the main road? Well, whoop-te-do. I'll make the walk if they'd let me, but I wouldn't know what to do once I get there.”

Mrs. Holm, who has never remarried, said even before she found out about the June visit, she began to campaign for a better accounting of her husband's remains, attending a program in Washington, D.C., last spring for families of Vietnam MIAs, and contacting the Repatriation and Family Affairs Office.

“If they check and there is nothing, I understand,” Mrs. Holm said. “The aircraft did explode. But they need to find the spot where it went down and check it out. That's really owed to him.

“The effort at least should be made, and then if absolutely nothing can be recovered, at least we've tried.” Mrs. Holm said. “I think every one of them deserves to be brought home. It brings closure to the family. It seems like there's something missing, the way we've left it.

“So many people still remember Arnold from Waterford, and after all this time with nothing happening, I think a lot of them would feel good to know that he has not been forgotten and that something is being done.” 

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