U.S. Ambassador to Serbia visits Pranjani Today

Ambassador Munter Honors Serbian Families in Pranjani U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Cameron Munter will visit Pranjani on November 9, 2007 to honor Serbian families who saved the lives of hundreds of U.S. airmen shot down by Nazi forces during World War II. The Ambassador will present an official proclamation from the Governor of the State of Ohio, thanking the people of Pranjani on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of the Halyard rescue mission. The State of Ohio is proud to be an active partner with Serbia in the State Partnership Program.

The Ambassador has chosen this day to visit Pranjani in honor of the American holiday of Veteran’s Day, which is celebrated on November 11 to commemorate those who have served in the American armed forces.

Operation Halyard: During the summer of 1944 approximately 1, 000 U.S. airmen bailed out over German-occupied Yugoslavia, a significant number of them landing in Serbia. In a series of daylight and night airlifts, a team made up of troops of General Mihailovic's Royal Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) evacuated over 300 U.S. airmen from the village of Pranjani. The rescue of the U.S. airmen involved small unit actions against German troops and put at risk entire Serb villages that sheltered the U.S. personnel. U.S. airmen bear testimony to the significant sacrifices of local Serb villagers who fed, cared for and protected them, in some cases up to six months. The Halyard Mission is considered one of the greatest rescues of American airmen from behind enemy lines in the history of warfare.

For more information, please contact the Embassy Press Section at trickovicb@state.gov or sokovicm@state.gov.

Yes, thanks so much for posting this & great photos, F-117A!

I just finished reading "The Forgotten 500" about the Halyard Mission and it was really interesting. Although it was all true, the book read like a novel and not just a reference book. Would highly recommend it to those interested in WWII military history.

Also, of those airmen shown in the 2004 photos on the website that F-117A posted, I think that only Art Jibilian is still left alive today of the rescued American Airmen.

I was lucky enough to have talked with both Major Richard Felman (Head of the Rescued Airmen) and Nick Lalich (American OSS officer on the Mission) many years ago about the battle for formal public recognition of the Halyard Mission. But even back then, both Felman and Lalich seemed well aware of how organized & formidable the opposition to recognition was. Felman said that the thing that angered him most was that most of the opposition to public recognition of Halyard were "immigrants who fought on the Nazi side of WWII and yet, the (expletive deleted)US State Department was listening to the Nazis and not to the American Airmen who risked their lives fighting them!"

Last Spring, Arthur Jibilan was interviewed for 6 hours by the crew of Fox's "War Stories with Oliver North", for a supposedly "upcoming episode". Then, two weeks before it was supposed to air, Jibilan got a call that they pulled the episode. Supposedly (mumble, mumble) didn't have budget (mumble, mumble) to do "more research" -- uh, might use his interview for something else (mumble, mumble.) Yeah, right. I am sure that no political strings were pulled to get it dropped -- uh, huh.

Sorry, just couldn't resist putting up the description & some of the photos from that sire!

In 2004, a group of American World War II veterans visited Serbia September 9-16 at the invitation of Serbia and Montenegro's Foreign Minister Vuk Draskovic to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Operation Halyard, when troops led by General Dragoljub Mihailovic saved the lives of several hundred U.S. airmen who were shot down over Serbia by Nazi forces.

During the Summer of 1944 approximately 1, 000 U.S. airmen bailed out over German-occupied Yugoslavia, a significant number of them landing in Serbia. In a series of daylight and night airlifts, a team made up of troops of General Mihailovic's Royal Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) evacuated over 250 U.S. airmen (actually over 500, according to Freeman & other sources) from the village of Pranjani.

The rescue of the U.S. airmen involved small unit actions against German troops and put at risk entire Serb villages that sheltered the U.S. personnel. U.S. airmen bear testimony to the significant sacrifices of local Serb villagers who fed, cared for and protected them, in some cases up to six months.

The four American veterans, Clare Musgrove, Art Jiblian, George Vujnovich and Robert Wilson visited Pranjani again on September 12, 2004 for the unveiling of a commemorative plaque at the Pranjani airfield.

From Left to Right: Front Row Seated, all four veterans: Clare Musgrove, Art Jiblian, George Vujnovich, Robert Wilson; Second Row: Mrs. Beverly Jo Jiblian, Mrs. Sharon Wilson; Third Row: Bojan Dimitrijevic from the MFA, Mrs. Karen Milutinovic, George Knezevic, MAJ Aleks Milutinovic, MAJ Tom Newcomb, Charge Roderick Moore, MAJ Sam Shult, Mrs. Chris Drake, COL Gordon Drake; Last Row: Gordon Musgrove

2004 Plaque unveiled at former Pranjani airstrip

Hi Bokababe, actually Arthur Jibilian was not one of the rescued American airmen — he is the last living O.S.S. veteran of the Halyard Mission. He was the radioman. I have just submitted a post about Jibilian and his return to Pranjani, Serbia for the first time in 60 years when the plaque honoring the American and Serbian veterans of Halyard was dedicated in September of 2004.

There are a few remaining rescued airmen still living who continue to fight the battle to get this wonderful, magnificent story told and the proper honor paid to the Serbs who saved their lives.

Take care,
Ravnagora

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