News-Info-Alerts

Re: Searching the Jungles

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: April 18, 2003

"Simmons in Vietnam seeking remains of pilot killed in war

Associated Press April 19, 2003

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons headed back to the jungles of Vietnam today with the hopes that he can bring some closure to a Waterford family whose son was shot down there in June 1972 and was never found.

Simmons, who did two tours in Vietnam, one in the Army and one as a CIA operative, will visit the site near Hue where officials believe Capt. Arnold Holm’s helicopter crashed.

"I don’t expect to discover anything myself," said Simmons. "There will be members of the recovery team on the site this Sunday and I will go down on Thursday. We hope to locate the crash site."

Holm, who is classified by the Pentagon as "Killed in Action, Body Not Recovered," is one of 3,311 service members still missing in Southeast Asia. Of those, 1,902 — including Holm — are listed as "unaccounted for," and 31 one of them are from Connecticut.

Simmons’ trip is an official congressional visit, and he plans to focus on the official efforts to recover the remains of American soldiers missing in action in Vietnam. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, he successfully battled to restore funding for the recovery unit when Congress tried to cut the budget.

He is the only lawmaker on this trip, which will include visits with officials in Hanoi for several days before he heads to the jungle west of Hue where they believe Holm and his two crew members crashed.

"I’ve gotten involved in this organization because I believe that recovery of remains is important to the families, and certainly it is important to the people in our community here in Waterford," said Simmons.

Two previous attempts to find the crash site were not successful, but the recovery team has received new information that they believe will lead them to the correct location.

©New Haven Register 2003"