Arnie Holm—A Hometown Hero Forever Remembered

In his life, Arnie Holm was the star of homecoming celebrations at Waterford High School. This Memorial Day weekend, however, marked a bittersweet homecoming for the Waterford war hero.  

On Sunday, a large crowd gathered at Waterford's Civic Triangle to honor the memory of their friend Arnie Holm, a man they had worked tirelessly to bring home since his death in the Vietnam war some four decades ago.

At a ceremony renaming the duck pond in his honor, they described him as an American hero. Holm was Waterford High School's captain of the football, basketball, and baseball teams. Yet, according to his friends, he had no God-given athletic ability—he was just a natural-born leader. 

Even as a teenager, Holm was mature beyond his years and able to inspire those know knew him to be better and braver than they ever imagined. He did it in high school on the athletic field and, when he joined the Army, he did it in Vietnam on the battlefield.

Holm gave up a college athletic scholarship—a first for Waterford—to join the military and rose quickly through the ranks to become a captain. He served as a drill sergeant, a tank commander, and a helicopter pilot. And he never left a man behind.

When a helicopter came under heavy fire while trying to rescue stranded Marines surrounded by the enemy in Vietnam, Holm told the pilot to stand his ground. He would draw enemy fire away to ensure the troops could escape.

That's just one of many stories that were told of Holm's valor at the grand unveiling of a memorial dedicated to him at Waterford's Civic Triangle the day before Memorial Day.

The renaming of the duck pond in his honor is also testament to the determination of his friends and family who insisted that Holm, like the men their friend fought to rescue, also be brought home. 

"The size of this crowd speaks more eloquently than any speech," said Congressman Joe Courtney, surveying the gathering at the memorial dedication to Holm on Sunday. "When the question is asked: 'Who is Arnie Holm?' his story will be told and retold forever."  

In 1972, Holm's helicopter was shot down in Vietnam. First he was missing in action, then the government changed his status to killed in action, then he was MIA again. For 40 years his friends and family battled with bureaucratic red tape in an attempt to locate and then identify Holm's remains. 

Holm's best friend Bill Cavalieri, with the support of Holm's widow Margarete, led the charge. He enlisted the help of then Congressman Rob Simmons and his successor Joe Courtney to open classified files to find Holm and then to identify his DNA so the family could finally bring him home for a funeral with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Cavalieri said he was inspired over and over again to keep trying. At yesterday's ceremony, he recalled the POW-MIA representative who—of all the soldiers who were MIA in Vietnam—was wearing Arnie's military bracelet on the day they happened to meet.

He recalled going to a traveling exhibit of the Vietnam Memorial Wall and, when he asked where he could find Arnie Holm's name on the wall, was given the exact location right away because the docet's best friend had served with Holm and his name was the next one on the wall. 

And Cavalieri recalled going to speak to Waterford High School teacher Brett Arnold's civics class about Holm and being approached by the captain of the football team—an offensive end just like Holm whose jersey was number 80 just as Holm's was—who was inspired to mount a letter-writing campaign to add more voices to Cavalieri's campaign to find him. 

Finally, their collective efforts brought Arnie Holm home to Waterford, where the duck pond he passed every day on his way to school will now forever bear his name. 

"Arnie was a real hometown American hero," said Cavalieri. "Rest in peace, my friend, I miss you every day."