News-Info-Alerts

Re: Roger Dumas Case to be "Looked Into"

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: November 24, 2002

"Simmons says he'll probe cases of missing G.I.s

By RAY HACKETT
Norwich Bulletin

CANTERBURY -- U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, has agreed to "look into" the matter of Korean War MIA Roger Dumas at the request of his brother, Canterbury resident Robert Dumas.

Simmons is scheduled to meet with Department of Defense POW/MIA officials Dec. 4 relating to the status of Waterford Army Capt. Arnold Holm, a helicopter pilot shot down in Vietnam. In a letter to Dumas this week, Simmons agreed to also ask for a briefing on Robert Dumas' status at the same time.

"We will have a meeting with Mr. (Robert) Dumas at some point after that, when we get more information, and then let him know what we have found out," said K. Robert Lewis from Simmons' staff.

Dumas said Friday that he was "very pleased" that Simmons has agreed to look into the issue.

"It will be the first time anyone in the Second District has done anything for me in 51 years," Dumas said. "He's the first one to send me a letter offering to help. But then, he's a Vietnam veteran."

Dumas has spent five decades attempting to locate his brother Roger who was captured by Communist forces during the Korean War but never accounted for when the war ended. He is among more than 8,000 soldiers unaccounted for from that war.

The Canterbury resident contacted the congressman's office after reading of Simmons' interest in the Holm case.

Roger Dumas was born in Plainfield, where he lived until he enlisted in the Army at 17. He is the youngest of six sons, all of whom served in the Army. He was a machine gunner in the 19th Infantry Regiment of the 24th Division in Korea and was captured Nov. 4, 1950, near Anju, North Korea.

Publicly, the Chinese and North Korean governments have denied they still are holding prisoners. The United States never has confirmed reports that POWs have been seen alive.

Holm's widow Margrete will accompany Simmons to the Dec. 4 meeting in Washington and take part in the briefing on her husband.

Based on eyewitness accounts, Capt. Holm and his crew are listed as presumed dead after the helicopter they were flying crashed in thick jungle in Hue Province of South Vietnam in 1972. Although the remains of a second helicopter that also crashed that day were discovered, no effort was ever made to try and recover Holm's helicopter because of the terrain.

Mrs. Holm has formally requested the Defense Department to reopen the case and conduct a recovery effort in the hopes of retrieving his remains. Simmons has offered to assist Mrs. Holm in that effort to convince Defense Department officials to reconsider the matter.

rhackett@norwichbulletin.com

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