News-Info-Alerts

Re: Keeping the Promise

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: April 19, 2003

"Promise: Finding MIAs is important; but search is important, too

By Americans
EDITORIAL

Earlier this month the Defense Department POW/Missing Personnel Office conducted informational hearings in Waterford on the ongoing search for Waterford native, Army Capt. Arnold Holm.

Holm, a helicopter pilot, was shot down in June 1972. A decorated career military man, he was in his second tour of duty during the Vietnam War. His body and those of his two crewmen have never been recovered. Two previous attempts pinpointing the location of the crash site failed to produce any significant evidence to warrant a more detailed search in the hopes of recovering those remains.

A third attempt, based on new information, will get under way this week. U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, R-2nd District, departed this morning for Vietnam and will accompany the Joint Task Force/Full Accountability investigative team on that search.

At the Waterford hearing, a high school student asked: Why? Why does the United States government spends $100 million a year searching for the remains of soldiers who died more than 30 years ago?

A fair question.

Because of a promise

We do it because of the promise we, as a nation, make to every person who serves this country in time of war: No one, ever, will be left behind on a battlefield. .

Last month U.S. Marines were engaged in an intense firefight in Iraq. When the dust settled, six Marines were listed as missing in action, including Waterford native Marine Cpl. Kemaphoom "Ahn" Chanawongse, 22.

His comrades never gave up on him, and 23 days later Ahn's remains were recovered and will be returned to his family for burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

The promise speaks to whom we are as Americans.

It would be nice if every effort to recover a fallen warrior resulted in the kind of joyous celebration we all witnessed these past weeks with the rescue of Army Pvt. Jessica Lynch and the other seven POWs held.

A somber outcome

Unfortunately, the dedicated work of the hundreds of men and women assigned to the Joint Task Force/Full Accountability has a more somber outcome. They recover the remains of fallen heroes.

Holm, a star athlete and 1962 graduate of Waterford High School, was not scheduled to fly that June day. But when the pilot who was scheduled came down ill, rather then send another in his place Holm took the assignment.

But he is not only eastern Connecticut hero who has not returned from war.

Roger Dumas of Plainfield was captured during the Korean War. When that war ended 50 years ago this year, Dumas was among the 8,100 American servicemen listed as missing in action.

If one needs proof of this worthwhile effort, one only need to look at the case involving Air Force Maj. Peter Cleary of Colchester, shot down over North Vietnam in October 1972. He was officially declared killed in action on May 1979 although his remains were not recovered until October 1994 -- 15 years later. But it took another seven years before the remains were positively identified and in April 2002, Peter Cleary finally came home and was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.

His daughter, Paige Cleary Somol, wrote the following on the Virtual Wall Web page:

"Major Peter Cleary was my Dad. He was missing in action for almost 30 years and has finally been returned home and laid to rest. Thank you for never forgetting the mising and those who loved them."

Holm, Clearly, Dumas and Chanawongse: Four young men from eastern Connecticut, heroes each separated by generations and drawn together by this common thread... Four young men who, when asked , stepped forward and said, "I'll go." They asked for nothing in return and we, as a nation, made a promise to each -- a promise that they would be returned to their homes and their loved ones.

Affirmation of a promise

DPMO spokesman Larry Greer said the amount spent on this effort is a decision made by the American people. It is tTaypayers' dollars pay for it.

So how much is a promise worth? How long is a promise good for?

While we all earnestly wish for the recovery of Dumas' and Holm's remains, as with so many things in life, the journey -- particularly as time passes -- is as important as the destination, and in tis case, perhaps more so.

Simmons' trip and the dozens, hundreds, even thousands of efforts made over the years -- 88,000 men and women are MIA since World War II -- are, successful or not, significant in themselves.

Because in the end, it is about keeping a promise. And keeping a promise to those who make the supreme sacrifice on our behalf is indeed the very fabric of who we are

©2003 Norwich Bulletin. "