
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, October 17, 1993                   TAG: 9310170051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: D-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, MD.                                LENGTH: Short

RELEASED PILOT HOME, AS HERO

Michael Durant, the Army helicopter pilot whose captivity in Somalia helped spark a cry for the United States to shift from fighting to talking, returned to a hero's welcome on U.S. soil Saturday night.

The 32-year-old Blackhawk pilot, who was accompanied by his wife on an eight-hour flight from Germany, was carried from a giant Air Force C-141 on a stretcher.

He was walked directly onto another plane waiting for the final leg of his homeward flight - a two-hour flight to Fort Campbell, Ky.

A delegation headed by Secretary of State Warren Christopher waited near the smaller plane - applauding - and walked en masse about 30 yards to meet Durant as he, his wife and the men bearing his stretcher moved across the same tarmac used by heads of state when they arrive for visits to the U.S. capital.

- Associated Press

by CNB