Calvert Vet Awarded POW Medal

By Susan Nolan

Perseverance pays off, whether trekking across a desert alone or when dealing with governmental red tape. Huntingtown resident Ron Dolecki has first-hand experience with both.

In 1965, Dolecki was a 20-year-old Army specialist on a military mission to map Ethiopia. On what should have been a routine field day, Dolecki, helicopter pilot Chief Warrant Officer Jack Kalmbach, and their Ethiopian translator Habte “Sam” Mesme were ambushed by 30 members of the Eritrean Liberation Front, a separationist group at war with the Ethiopian government. 

Convinced the three men were spies, the guerilla soldiers held them at gunpoint and forced them to walk over 150 miles across treacherous terrain to the Sudanese border. They were denied food and when U.S. search helicopters appeared overhead, they were forced to hide. 

Once in Sudan, the guerillas left the men with only six soldiers to guard them. Dolecki and his companions saw the opportunity for one of them to escape. Because Dolecki was the youngest and strongest of the group, it was decided he should sneak away while their captors were distracted. He traveled east keeping to rocky ground when possible to avoid leaving footprints. He recalls being tracked by a pack of hungry hyenas at night and scorched by the relentless heat of the desert sun during the day. Eventually, he made it to safety. 

News of his arrival at a hospital in American-controlled Kagnew Station in Asmara, Ethiopia, may have prompted the ELF to release Kalmbach and Mesme.

Meanwhile, the Army had informed Dolecki’s parents that their son was missing. A newspaper had reported he was dead and his body was unlikely to be recovered as the area was “infested by lions and leopards.” 

News of his survival was heralded as a miracle in his hometown of Oil City, Pennsylvania. “My mother had been going to Mass twice a day, along with all her sisters,” says Dolecki. “Everyone in town was praying for me.”

Once back in the United States, Dolecki put the harrowing experience behind him. He attended Clarion State College earning a degree in earth and space science and married Linda Kurschinske in 1972. The couple moved to Maryland and Dolecki worked for the CIA until 2004. He worked another four years for government contractors before retiring in 2008.

Over the years, Dolecki kept in touch with both Kalmbach and Mesme. Kalmbach retired from the Army and passed away in 2016. “Sam’s fate was more ironic,” says Dolecki. The translator became disenchanted with the Ethiopian government and joined the rebels who once held him captive. He died fighting alongside other ELF guerilla soldiers. 

In 2004, Linda decided to surprise her husband by applying for his Prisoner of War Medal based on his experience in Ethiopia. “It was supposed to be a birthday present,” she says, “I thought it would be easy, but the application was rejected.”

According to Dolecki, up until he saw the first rejection letter, he had little interest in receiving a medal. Being denied the POW Medal changed that. 

“The letter made me angry,” he says, “The reason they gave for denying me the award is that they said we were kidnapped by bandits, not soldiers. That’s simply not true. Ethiopia was a country at war. The Army knew these guys were armed guerillas.” 

From that point on, Dolecki was a man on a mission. He responded with letters and documentation to prove the Eritrean Liberation Front was recognized as organized, armed rebels at war with the Ethiopian government. Still, his application was rejected again and again.

“I don’t even know that they read all the documentation I sent them,” says Dolecki. “They responded with form letters. It became a contest of wills. Three times—I almost gave up, but I had friends from the VFW, old Army buddies and even a couple of military historians I didn’t even know encouraging me to keep at it.” 

While Linda Dolecki initially applied for the medal through Sen. Paul Sarbanes’ office, Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin also championed Dolecki’s cause. On March 31, 2022, Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s office announced Dolecki would be awarded the long overdue POW Medal. Kalmbach was awarded the medal posthumously. 

Dolecki credits Van Hollen and Dr. Dwight Mears with being instrumental in cutting through the Army’s bureaucracy. Mears is a military historian and attorney in Portland, Oregon, who read about Dolecki in the Baltimore Sun and provided his services pro bono. 

Despite 18 years of fighting for recognition, Dolecki is not bitter. “The Army gave me specialized training that led me to a fulfilling career with the CIA, and I can’t be angry about that.”