Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 9, 1995 TAG: 9506090098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATTHEW C. VITA COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
But for Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady, his path to freedom was an eternity.
From the moment he ejected from his F-16 until Thursday, when he sprinted, pistol in hand, from a pine forest and toward his rescuers, O'Grady stayed focused on two things: staying alive and getting home.
``This is a tough hombre we're talking about,'' NATO's Southern Europe commander, Adm. Leighton Smith, said. ``Whatever else he had, he had a lot of guts to go with it. That's what he had - guts and training.''
Plus a big assist from the United States Marines, who mounted a spectacular rescue mission that borrowed a page from a Tom Clancy thriller.
For O'Grady, who survived six days on the run through courage, perseverance and the skills honed from his military training, it was a happy ending to a story that began so badly last Friday when his F-16C jet was blasted from the skies over northern Bosnia by a Serb SAM-6 missile.
The 29-year-old Air Force pilot, a resident of Spokane, Wash., survived on bugs - probably ants and crickets - and rainwater after supplies from his survival kit ran out, said Lt. Cmdr. Paul Rochereto, a Marine Corps doctor who examined him after he was brought to the USS Kearsarge in the Adriatic Sea.
O'Grady was suffering from hypothermia and hunger and had a slight burn on the rear of his neck - apparently the result of his ejection from his aircraft - but otherwise appeared in good health.
``He's really happy to be alive. He's real happy to be aboard a U.S. ship and I think he's doing real well,'' Rochereto told reporters.
O'Grady's exploits were praised by President Clinton as an ``inspiration.'' Like all U.S. Air Force pilots, he took a two-week survival course before his assignment and received refresher courses each year.
Deep in hostile Serb territory, O'Grady hid and slept by day and moved by night until he could find a heavily wooded hilltop location several miles from the crash site where he could be rescued.
By Thursday, however, hopes had begun to dim that O'Grady had survived. The military reported earlier in the week that it had been picking up an intermittent distress beacon - standard issue in the survival kits of U.S. pilots - from the region where O'Grady's plane went down.
But it never had direct contact with the downed pilot - until shortly after 2 a.m. Thursday (8 p.m. EDT Wednesday).
Secured in his hilltop forest hideout, O'Grady, using a radio whose batteries he had carefully conserved throughout his ordeal, contacted an American F-16 flying a routine mission overhead. The pilot ``heard Scott come up and recognized the voice immediately,'' Smith said.
Twelve minutes later, O'Grady was positively identified. His location: 65 miles inland in a rugged, hilly region southeast of the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Bihac.
Aboard the USS Kearsarge, the flagship of a three-vessel force of 2,000 Marines 20 miles off the coast in the Adriatic Sea, commanders put in motion a daring rescue operation in preparation since O'Grady's jet went down. The recovery team, an elite 40-strong Marine unit, was trained and ready to go.
Shortly after daybreak, at 5:05 a.m., the recovery effort was launched.
As the rescue mission headed inland, the AWACS established contact with O'Grady. The choppers were a half hour away. Though help was finally near, the Air Force captain - tired, hungry and cold - was in the middle of hostile Serb territory. His safety was by no means assured.
As the helicopters approached, O'Grady set off a yellow smoke canister to guide them in.
The Cobras swooped down first. At times not more than 100 feet off the ground, they secured the surrounding terrain. The Harriers provided cover, backed up by the F-18s, which circled the area on the lookout for trouble.
As the two Sea Stallions set down, 20 crack Marines jumped off one chopper and fanned out to establish the rescue site. Only then did O'Grady make his move.
Helmet on and waving his pistol, he sprinted from his wooded hiding spot 50 yards away and dashed toward one of the waiting CH-53s and into the arms of a waiting Marine, who hauled O'Grady aboard.
``I'm ready to get the hell out of here,'' O'Grady shouted.
``To see him running through the brush covered in sweat and water with his pistol in his hand making his way to the aircraft is not a scene that I'll soon forget,'' Marine Col. Martin Berndt said afterward.
by CNB