In this Dec. 28, 1944 photo provided by the U.S. National Archives, OSS Capt. George Vujnovich, right, stands in Bari, Italy with a group of Allied airmen he helped rescue after they were downed over Nazi occupied Serbia
Posted on 10/18/2010 3:24:58 AM PDT by Daffynition
NEW YORK — The U.S. government has recognized the World War II architect of a mission to rescue more than 500 U.S. bomber fliers shot down over Nazi-occupied Serbia — the largest air rescue of Americans behind enemy lines in any war.
George Vujnovich, a 95-year-old New Yorker, is credited with leading the so-called Halyard Mission in what was then Yugoslavia.
The 95-year-old New York City man was awarded the Bronze Star in a ceremony Sunday at Manhattan's St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral. He received a standing ovation from a crowd of several hundred.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
In this Dec. 28, 1944 photo provided by the U.S. National Archives, OSS Capt. George Vujnovich, right, stands in Bari, Italy with a group of Allied airmen he helped rescue after they were downed over Nazi occupied Serbia
Worth repeating. ;)
Thanks for the bump. I’m not one to judge such decisions, but it seems he deserves more.
I have to run to the library today anyway, and I’m going to look for this book.
Hopefully we will never again see many Americans trapped behind enemy lines.
I am curious as to why it took so long to award this medal? It seems that we hear of these (late) medals being awarded every month, or so. Did somebody just slip up? Or, have the critera changed in the interveneing years?
It seems that JFKerry got a medal for a grain of rice imbedded in is butt while true heros have waited their entire lives for thanks, or recogniton.
“bomber fliers”? I think they mean airmen.
Why not give it a place of Honor on your book shelf - and for your kids/grandkids to read - help the story from being buried in the dust of time again?
Some 60 years late, a hand-full of MOST deserving soldiers are getting what should have been theirs decades ago - this man was, fortunately, still alive to see it - at 94!
I could tell you many stories of actions by our soldiers in Afghanistan that are deliberately being ignored for rightful medals and/or given medals below the level deserved - because the powers that be don't want that much attention brought to the level of fighting...and who despise our military as well.
these 'powers' are, largely, wimps who never served a day - and if they did, would have messed themselves.
“.....JFKerry got a medal for a grain of rice imbedded in his butt.....”
I always thought John ‘effin Kerry got a medal for having a stick up his a$$.
You are discovering a terrible truth — the anti-Serbian mindset.
As you well know, over 1,000,000 Serbs died during WWII at the hands of Germans and their ferocious collaborators, Croats, Bosnian Muslims, and Kosovo Albanians. And who torpedoed the Pact with Germany on March 27, 1941? Of course, the crazy Serbs, provoking the biggest power in Europe — the Nazi Germany and paying the price. All these savages worked together to destroy Serbia and its people, culture, thought, creativity and talent to no avail. But paradoxically some sick, perverse souls in America are still at it big time. You can find them in the media, government and academia trying to prove that they are cured of racism and are opening America’s gates to millions of Muslims who bring stupidity, racial intolerance and extremism, crime, and openly plan the murder and destruction of their American hosts. These miserable creatures are consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others. When Yugoslavia fell apart, the Serbs in Bosnia refused to live under the Muslims who served as Hitler’s executioners, but the Arab world sold them to Washington as moderate-secular people, and Washington sided with them and turned a blind eye on Iranian arms shipments to Tuzla airport and infiltration of the Jihadists in the Bosnian army who are now killing our troops in Iraq.
Of course, those in America who sponsored the Muslims of Bosnia and Kosovo against Christian Serbs and received fat lobbying fees from the Arabs will never permit the truth to be told because their crimes would be exposed.
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"...many of the downed airmen were injured. Jibilian still has shoulder problems after lifting wooden ox-carts over large stones to avoid jarring the wounded soldiers inside. Little food was available, but Jibilian said Mihailovich and his men sometimes went hungry to make sure the airmen had something to eat."
"When they left Yugoslavia, the airmen returned the favor by giving up their shoes to the Serbs, an item that was difficult to find at the time."
(Halyard members dumping their shoes)
My former neighbor and employer was an American bomber pilot who was shot down over Yugoslavia and rescued, probably by that organization. The local partisans hid him and others for a week until a rescue could be arranged. On the night of the rescue, the pilots were hidden in foxholes in a field next to an improvised landing strip. They were dispersed over a large area so that if the Nazis discovered them and began shelling the field, they would not all perish due to one unlucky hit. He said it was cold, and the longest, scariest night of his life. An airplane touched down for less than a minute, as every pilot scrambled from his hole, ran and climbed aboard. He was the one who originally told me that “there are no atheists in foxholes”.
What a remarkable story! Thanks.
We owe so many thanks to these patriots. It’s imperative to uphold their brave histories.
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Thanks for the info and the references. I suspected that politics had something to do with it.
I know that my uncle qualified for medals for several battles in the Pacific. Navy — he was on the Detroit when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The Detroit was the first ship to get underway when the planes attacked and she is credited for leading the way out of the Harbor so that the surviving members of the Fleet could scatter and be saved. My uncle was barely 18 and just out of Boot Camp when the War started.
We heard about that escapade from a tour guide on a boat on the way out to the Arizona Memorial. My uncle had never said a word about it to his family, previously. He was with us on that trip and we turned to look at him when the tour guide told the story. He was weeping.
Letters home were few and far between during the War and heavily censored. It was a big family occasion when one arrived, and he used to write in code to let us know where he was. One time he asked if I was still engaged to Philip? My mother thought he was nuts because I was only 4 years old at the time! But, my grandfather saw right through the ruse and explained, “He’s letting us know that he’s on his way to the Philippines.”
I remember that he never applied for medals (ribbons) for the battles he was in. Those that he brought home at the end of the War were put in a drawer and never spoken of again. He just didn’t want to talk about it. He was injured in one battle and spent some time in the hospital, but nobody in the family ever knew how, or why. He was just assigned to a different ship after his wounds healed.
My point is that there were a lot of sailors, soldiers, and marines who felt the same way. They didn’t want to dwell on their experiences, and they considered the War a closed chapter in their lives after they got out. They weren’t in it for medals.
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