Conservation officer's widow recalls husband's heroic end

ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) — Medals stacked in boxes and an American flag carefully folded in a wooden box sit behind Belinda Bollman next to an end table with wedding and family photos.

The medals and flag were awarded posthumously to her husband, Sgt. Ed Bollman, a conservation officer with the Department of Natural Resources who died on Feb. 13, 2018.

Opening one of the boxes, Belinda explained the medal inside was given to her last May during a DNR ceremony.

“He was the first DNR officer to ever receive it,” she said of Indiana’s Medal of Honor.

It was presented in recognition of Ed, who was 43, for his act of heroism when he sacrificed his life in an attempt to save his friend, 74-year-old Roger Chezem, who had fallen into a pond near the small town of Frankton, Indiana.

Belinda, 45, met her husband at Lapel High School when they were freshmen. They were married for 22 years.

“I started dating Ed when I was 17, and I probably met Roger two weeks later,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve known him forever also.”

Chezem was like a second father to her husband, she said.

“He was his Boy Scout leader for many, many years,” she said. “He was in our wedding as a groomsman. He really was like his second dad. He was the one to teach him most of the things he knew about hunting, fishing and being an outdoorsman.”

The two men had planned to go ice fishing the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2018, after Ed got off work. Belinda said she fixed dinner, but her husband wasn’t home when it began to get dark, and he wasn’t answering her text messages.

“We ended up eating our salad,” she said, looking toward the kitchen. “We left his sitting there. I still have the texts on my phone.”

Chezem’s wife called her before calling the camp where the men were ice fishing. A manager checked the pond and said the truck was there, but the men weren’t anywhere to be found.

Belinda and the couple’s 10-year-old son, Hunter, drove to the campgrounds.

“We pulled in and there was already a fire truck and an ambulance there,” she said. “That’s when I knew it was a little more serious than they were just out walking in the woods.”

The mother and her son waited while rescuers searched for the two men.

“They finally found them, and it was almost midnight,” she said. “I just kept telling people ‘He’s smarter than this — I don’t know how this could happen.’”

Authorities later pieced together what had happened.

They believe Chezem, who had been fishing on the ice every day that week, went out onto the ice while Ed was putting on his cold-weather gear at Chezem’s truck.

“He went out first and fell through and then had a heart attack,” she said of Chezem.

Ed, trained in ice rescues, rushed to pull his friend from the water.

“Ed knew how to get himself out of the ice, but he wouldn’t let go of Roger,” Belinda said. “When they found him, Ed still had a hold of Roger.”

Ed had broken a path of about 50 feet of ice with his head and one of his hands trying to get to the shore — all while still holding onto Chezem.

“I just think he thought he could make it,” Belinda said. “It was cold, and I’m sure hypothermia set in, and he couldn’t go any further. That’s how the line of duty comes into play. He knew how to save someone — he was doing that. He was trying to. He put Roger’s life ahead of his.”

An investigation by three separate law enforcement agencies determined that while Ed was not working at the time of the accident, he rushed to save his friend from the icy waters.

Military honors were conducted for Ed seven months after his death and he has since been honored for his actions. His name was added to the wall at the National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial in Washington, D.C.

__

Source: The Herald Bulletin