News-Info-Alerts

Re: Teacher Turns Civics Class Into Action

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: May 17, 2003

"The Buzz: Brett Arnold - Teacher Spearheads The Local Movement To Bring The Remains Of Vietnam War Pilot

Suzanne Ouellette

Who: Brett Arnold, 30, of Niantic.

Why you should know him: Last fall, Arnold gave his Waterford High School civics class an assignment: write letters to Congressman Rob Simmons exhorting him to take up the cause of Capt. Arnold E. Holm, a Waterford native who has been missing in action in Vietnam for 31 years. After receiving the letters, Simmons got involved and even went along on a search mission in Vietnam last month. Remnants of the crash site may have been found.

Good timing: Arnold, a Niantic native, began teaching civics last fall after the legislature mandated that all Connecticut high school students pass a half-year civics course. Last summer, while he was pondering an appropriate project for his new class, Arnold heard the story of Holm.

A little history: Arnold E. Holm was a three-sport stand-out at Waterford High, Class of '62. He joined the Army and became a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. On June 11, 1972, his helicopter was shot down. Holm and his two crewmen were never recovered. A second helicopter sent for a rescue mission also crashed, killing that pilot and a crew member. Those remains were recovered in 1993.

The rest of the story: Bill Cavalieri was Arnie Holm's best friend in high school. Cavalieri, who lives in Florida, has worked tirelessly to have his friend's remains found. Marie Koning, an assistant librarian at Waterford High, graduated with Holm and Cavalieri. Last summer she showed Brett Arnold a letter Cavalieri had written urging every member of the Class of '62 to write their congressman in support of a full search for Holm's remains.

Coincidences: At the same time that the Defense Department was holding a meeting about Holm's case in Waterford in early April, another Waterford High grad was missing in wartime. Marine Cpl. Kemaphoom A. Chanawongse went MIA on March 23 during a firefight near Nasiriyah, Iraq. His body was later recovered. “There are so many coincidences,” Arnold says.

The next generation:Cavalieri was in town last Thanksgiving. Arnold invited him to speak to the class. “I told them ... I had reached the end of what I could do,” says Cavalieri. “I had never gotten a response from Simmons, Lieberman, Dodd ... I said, ‘I need your help. I can't do this by myself anymore. You are powerful as a group.' At the same time I told them I had found names in Arnie's file at the Pentagon, eyewitnesses to his crash, and I can't find any of these guys. Well, within 24 hours they had found all three people, working their magic with the Internet. I contacted them, they led me to others, and the momentum had begun. One of them told me ‘I can pinpoint the crash site.'

“Without Brett's commitment to this and getting his students involved, we would be totally in the dark. They are responsible for bringing this to its conclusion and bringing us closure.”

It really does take a village: “I think (the students) were key to bringing the focus of attention again to the longtime effort to find Arnie's remains,” says Waterford First Selectman Paul Eccard, who also grew up with Holm. “They communicated the will and energy of another generation to meet that promise of bringing home everybody. I think Brett provided that vision. ...

“It echoes what makes Waterford a strong community. Brett touched a chord that is very strong in this community.”

Lessons learned: “The relevance of this project ... the lessons learned by the students will last with them forever,” Arnold says. “And I'm teaching about it, but I'm so much more involved. I care so much about this issue.” 

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