News-Info-Alerts

Re: Work Will Continue to Find Pilot

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: April 29, 2003

"Simmons says work will continue to find pilot's remains

Associated Press

NORWICH, Conn. -- Crews will continue to search the jungle for the remains of a pilot from Waterford whose helicopter was shot down in Vietnam 31 years ago, U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons said Monday.

Simmons said he is confident the remains of Army Capt. Arnold Holm will be found, but said the search could take days or years.

"It's a very difficult process, but it has been successful," said Simmons, R-Conn.

Simmons and a team of American and Vietnamese searchers last week found some items in the Vietnamese jungle, near where Holm's helicopter was thought to have gone down.

It is too soon to tell whether the items belonged to Holm or another member of his crew, but the discovery gave his widow, Margarete Holm, hope that remains will be found.

"I didn't quite expect it to happen as quickly as it did. It's almost like a dream. It doesn't seem quite real to me yet, but it is obviously. Reality will set in sooner or later," said Margarete Holm, who now lives in Lebanon, Pa.

Holm and his crew, Spc. Robin Yeakley and Pfc. Wayne Bibbs, are among the 1,885 service members still listed as missing in southeast Asia.

Their helicopter was shot down June 11, 1972 in a mountainous region in central Vietnam, near Hue.

A rescue team that looked for the wreckage at the time also was shot down.
Searchers have since found the location of the rescue helicopter, leading them to believe that Holm's wreckage must be nearby.

A search last week turned up some machinery near a burned patch of ground, along with a helmet, a boot, a pilot's flashlight and other objects, Simmons said.

The items were found by an advance search crew that went to the site to clear brush the day before Simmons and others were to arrive.

A Vietnamese forester, who makes his living harvesting rare woods from the jungle, produced a Seiko watch he found near the search site in 1979.

Simmons said he was not allowed to pay the man for the watch, but he traded it for a baseball cap from the U.S. House of Representatives.

The watch is not the one that Margarete Holm had given her husband, she said. The band on that watch was broken, and it is unknown if he bought another watch.

The military did not issue watches to most servicemen back then, Simmons said.
The items that were found will be researched to see if they can be traced to Holm or another crewman. The watch has a serial number, which also will be researched, Simmons said.

Searchers continued to look around the site this week, and they will stay as long as the weather cooperates, Simmons said.

Because of the frequent rains and heavy fog in the area, only a month or two is clear enough for searchers to do their jobs, he said.

The next search party will consist of up to 50 foresters and personnel from the military's Joint Task Force Full Accounting operation.

If a definite crash site can be found, the military then will authorize an archaeological dig.

Searchers have tried four times to find Holm's wreckage. The site probably has not been found because the terrain is so remote and difficult, Simmons said.
The brush is so thick in the jungle that hikers cannot see more than five or six feet in front of their faces. Searchers get on their hands and knees to go over a site and probe with sticks and gloved hands because of fear of snakes.
The heat and humidity is so oppressive that hikers are quickly soaked to the skin and must constantly drink water.

Also, the area is prone to landslides in heavy rains. A landslide could have buried the wreckage or washed it into a gully.

"You've got to have bright eyes and a lot of luck," Simmons said.

Despite these difficulties, each year, search teams find and identify between 12 and 18 sets of remains, he said. Thirty-eight Connecticut residents remain missing in action in southeast Asia, he said.

Last year, searchers used DNA tests to identify the remains of Army Maj. Peter Cleary, a Colchester man missing in action in Vietnam. Cleary was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

© 2003, The Associated Press
© 2003, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc."