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SGT. MIKE MCKOOL, rescued American WWII Halyard Mission Airman, testifies before Commission of Inquiry regarding "Fair Trial for General Mihailovich" May 1946 New YorkAleksandra's Note: On May 13, 1946, the Committee for a Fair Trial for General Mihailovich announced that a "Commission of Inquiry" had been established in New York for the purpose of taking the testimonies of American officers and airmen whose request to be heard as witnesses at the trial of General Draza Mihailovich in Belgrade, Yugoslavia had been refused by the Tito government. The following is the testimony of Sergeant Mike McKool from Dallas, Texas, one of...

General Draza Mihailovich WWII The 70th anniversary of Belgrade’s liberation in WW2, will be marked by a military parade. After a 29-year hiatus, some 3,000 members of the Serbian Army will parade on October 16. Also scheduled is the appearance of the Russian acrobatics group “Strizhi”, flying the newest MiG-29 fighters. The celebration will be graced by the presence of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, a symbol of Russia’s rebirth. Putin’s visit to Serbia is a clear signal to both Serbian citizens and the West. During their aggression against the Serbs in the 1990s, Washington and Brussels have exterminated...

Aleksandra's Note: ...Lt. Col. Milton Friend of the USAF, a Halyard Mission veteran that I met in person in Chicago in 1994 for the 50th anniversary celebration of the Halyard Mission Rescue Operation, got in touch with me in 2009. I had wondered if he was still living. Indeed he was, and he had a story to tell. When I searched for him on the internet, I discovered that he was not featured anywhere that I could find. I told him that his story needs to be made public and be given wide exposure, and it is my absolute pleasure...

VIDEO: GEN. MIHAILOVICH honored in U.S. Congress June 11, 2014 / Congressman TED POE of Texas - "Today, I want to commemorate one of our most important allies: the people of Serbia." / CONGRESSIONAL RECORD Mr. Speaker, since our founding, Americans have always had to fight for the liberty and freedom that we have. Throughout our history, we have had allies from other parts of the world on our side ready to help us, and we have been ready to help them stand together for freedom over tyranny. Today, I want to commemorate one of our most important allies: the...

"Confidence thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live." Franklin Delano Roosevelt REMEMBERING GENERAL DRAZA MIHAILOVICH: A TRULY GREAT MAN WHO LEFT HIS MARK FOREVER. Taking to the hills of Serbia with only a few Serbian patriots to mount the first real resistance to Hitler's occupying forces in Europe was impressive by all human standards. The guts it took and the resolve necessary for these men and their leader to initiate such a courageous act against the Nazi war machine that in 1941 appeared to be invincible...

Nebojša Glogovac as Colonel Draza Mihailovich in "Ravna Gora" "At the Salonika Front and the Battle of Kumanovo, Draza Mihailovich fought for his country of Serbia long before the Second World War. It should be said that Josip Broz Tito also fought before the Second World War, but it was on the side of Austria-Hungary and against the Serbs."Serbian Actor Nebojsa Glogovac on the eve of the premier of the fourth episode of the "Ravna Gora Series" on Radio-Television Srbije, in which Colonel Draza Mihailovich, whom Glogovac plays in this series, is presented on screen for the first time. The...

General Mihailovich Lt. Colonel Albert B. Seitz [American Office of Strategic Services OSS] ''As we proceeded out over the Adriatic my mind flashed back to one incident which will always have great meaning for me. Before I was leaving my tour of Serbia, the Minister [General Mihailovich] had expressed a desire to do something to honor America saying 'Here we have Slava, the day of our patron saint. What is America’s slava?' "I thought for a moment and said, 'We have four great days: Christmas, New Years, Independence Day, and Thanksgiving. Christmas we love because it is the day...

Professor Kirk Ford, Jr. General Mihailovich 100th Birthday Celebration Chicago, IL April 23, 1993 Rebic Collection. Aleksandra's Note: Dr. Kirk Ford, Jr. is the Chairman of the Department of History and Political Science at Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi. He is the author of the book OSS and the Yugoslav Resistance 1943-1945, published by Texas A&M University Press, 1992. This book is an extensively researched, in-depth, objective, and truthful analysis of OSS activity attached to both the Mihailovich Chetnik forces [Nationalists/Royalists] and the Partisan forces [Yugoslav communists] under Marshal Tito. I highly recommend it for any honest pursuit of research...

He never stopped. It became his mission in life. For 55 years, over half a century, Major Richard L. Felman of the United States Air Force worked ceaselessly to do one thing: to repay a debt of gratitude... As we in America just commemorated Veteran’s Day and are getting ready to celebrate our Thanksgiving, it is our turn to remember and say “Thank You” to a man that we who knew him will never forget. Writing these things is never easy, especially when you are trying to properly honor the life and work of someone you knew personally and liked...

Aleksandra's Note: I had the pleasure of meeting RCAF veteran Norman Reid in Chicago in 1994 at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Halyard Mission, as part of a week long world-wide commemoration of the 50th anniversary of D-Day. He impressed me as a kind, soft-spoken, unassuming gentleman who escorted me to the D-Day activities on Lake Michigan that same week. I had hoped to keep in touch with Mr. Reid in the following years. I do not know if he is still alive and hope that if anyone does know, they will get in touch with me.These are the...

Curtis Diles' yard in Ohio with 500 American flags honoring the Mihailovich Serbs of WWII. Photo courtesy of the Diles family, date unknown. Aleksandra's Note:American WWII Air Force veteran Curtis "Bud" Diles, one of the "Forgotten 500" of the great Halyard Mission rescue operation, turned 88 on July 15, 2013. He has lived a full, rich life, and to his great credit to this day he has never forgotten what was done for him almost 70 years ago, a lifetime ago, by strangers whose language and culture he did not share and in whose land he had become a "visitor"...

Aleksandra's Note: On October 25, 2010, Lt. Col. Milton Friend (USAF, ret.) and his wife Shirley embarked on a very important trip overseas to Serbia. It would turn out to be the trip of a lifetime and the first time Milton Friend was returning to Serbia since World War Two! The main objective of the visit to Serbia was for Halyard Mission veteran Lt. Col. Milton Friend to testify at the October 29th hearing in Belgrade regarding the Rehabilitation of General Draza Mihailovich. Following this note you will find a photo essay courtesy of Milton and Shirley Friend of this...

Aleksandra's Note: June 10th marks the anniversary of when the Mihailovich Trial began in Belgrade in 1946. This trial would end in a "Guilty" verdict, a "Conviction", an "Appeal Denied", and an execution that would be carried out on July 17, 1946, only two days after the verdict and conviction were handed down. The trial was a sham, one of the biggest of the 20th century. It didn't last long by today's standards - just over a month. I'm convinced that General Mihailovich knew he was a "dead man walking" from day one, but he remained calm and testified and...

Curtis Diles (left), with a friend in Italy, 1945, returned to safety and survived the war after being rescued by the Mihailovich Serbs.There are those people in life that are born unto their destiny, that come into life to be something special. They choose not their path, nor do they accept it willingly, it just is for them, despite their not even seeking it. You cannot create these people; you cannot groom them for their destiny is contained within every cell of their being. They cannot be drawn into a comic book or cast into a made for TV movie...

Two men who changed history never met, but they should have. They had an enormous impact on each other’s lives. They both were men of war. One would survive. The other would not. The following gives voice to General Draza Mihailovich, the one who did not survive, and what he might have said to the one who did, the great Statesman Winston Churchill, had he had the chance to do so.Dear Winston, During a critical period in the history of the world, our paths crossed in a fateful way, though we would never meet. I would die first, without any...

Latest book by a biographer of Yugoslav communists has found documents which show that Yugoslav communist bandits have tortured Serbia’s WWII General Mihailovich in order to force him to admit guilt.Contrary to the claims by communist “historians”, Serbia’s General Mihailovich was tortured by Yugoslav communist secret service. Mihailovich was tortured for days by Lazic and Bedakovic, two communist security chiefs from Belgrade and Zagreb centers.Lazic and Bedakovic got their training from Stalin’s security capo, Beria, who impressed Stalin by being able to make any man admit to anything.Only 2 people lived through Lazic’s and Bedakovic’s interrogation tactics, and Mihailovich, who was...

Aleksandra's Note: A great job by Nick Tintor in summarizing an often polarizing issue that is in need of resolution after all these years. I wanted to extend a special note of gratitude to The Jerusalem Post for publishing this important piece, and keeping it online despite the hostility it has evoked in some of the Post's readers. The Post is to be commended for this. Anyone who refers to Serbian "anti-Semitism" during WWII or General Mihailovich's alleged "collaboration with the Nazis" clearly is repeating the usual communist propaganda that has so infiltrated the historical record regarding the Chetnik movement...

Julia Gorin Aleksandra's Note: Julia Gorin, an opinion columnist with a focus on the Balkans and consistent journalistic integrity, has put together yet another excellent response to the boilerplate musings of the Serb demonizers who never quit. This time she addresses the Washington Times editorial of Jeffrey T. Kuhner published on May 24, 2012 in response to the election of Serbia's new president, Tomislav Nikolic: "Did Serbia Vote for War: New ultranationalist president promotes instability". http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/24/did-serbia-vote-for-war/ Gorin tackles head on the analogy to the Mihailovich Serbs of WWII that Kuhner includes in his current hit piece. Because she incorporates a...

BELGRADE -- The proceedings for rehabilitation of WWII General Dragoljub Mihailović resumed on Friday [May 11, 2012] before the Higher Court in Belgrade. Mihailović was a commander of the Chetnik movement during World War II who was sentenced to death in 1946. The court listened to audio recordings from the trial against Mihailović, provided by historian Slobodan Marković, specifically one part of his closing argument given on July 10, 1946. “By comparing stenographer's notes and transcripts of the audio recording, it is evident the former were cut short by 27 percent and the meaning of sentences was often changed,” Marković...

George Vujnovich, an American intelligence agent who led the largest air rescue of Americans behind enemy lines during World War II, died last week at the age of 96, according to media reports. In 1944, the Serbian-American officer in the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency) organized successful efforts to insert a team into what was then Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia and rescue more than 500 pilots and airmen who had been downed trying to cross the territory to bomb Hitler’s oil fields in Romania, according to an obituary in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The airmen had been hidden...