Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 10, 1995 TAG: 9506120061
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press
DATELINE: AVIANO AIR BASE, ITALY LENGTH: Medium
Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady, safe after eluding capture in Bosnia-Herzegovina for almost six days, fought tears as he addressed an all-American crowd there to salute his return.
U.S. service personnel, VIPs, fellow pilots and their families turned the giant hangar at the Italian air base into the Fourth of July with flags, bunting, kids on shoulders, Neil Diamond belting out ``America'' and cameras flashing.
They cheered, stamped their feet and some shouted ``Amen!'' when the 29-year-old pilot offered reverent thanks for the safe conclusion of his adventure.
``The first thing I want to do is to thank God,'' the fighter pilot said, his voice cracking with emotion. ``If it wasn't for God's love for me and my love for God, I wouldn't have gotten through it. He's the one that delivered me here, and I know that in my heart.''
O'Grady wore his olive green flight suit, the right shoulder emblazoned with the blue-and-yellow shield of the 555th (Triple Nickel) Fighter Squadron and its motto: ``Return with honor.''
Meanwhile, jets from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, based at Aviano, flew by in formation. Television cameras grouped square-jawed flyers before an F-16 fighter similar to the one shot out from under O'Grady over Bosnia June 2 as he patrolled a U.N.-designated ``no-fly'' zone.
It was a feel-good day in a small American town: 1,000 friends dressed in everything from working day uniforms to Bermuda shorts.
O'Grady wiped away tears, pumped his fists with joy and popped a magnum of champagne. Doctors pronounced him fit and his commanders said he would fly to the United States to visit relatives in Virginia and Washington state.
About an hour's drive north of Venice, Aviano has generated a local American community of about 8,700 service personnel and their dependents. Pilots say Aviano is 30 minutes from the beach, 30 minutes from the mountains and 30 minutes from a Balkans civil war.
O'Grady, nicknamed ``Zulu'' among his fellow pilots, was the squadron officer assigned to teach survival techniques to his comrades. Lt. Gen. Michael E. Ryan, commander of the U.S. 16th Air Force and NATO forces in southern Europe, told the crowd that the pilot from Spokane, Wash., ``had a lot of training in escape and evasion and used it very well.''
Ryan said O'Grady evaded all contact for the nearly six days he hid in a wooded area of western Bosnia but was actively being sought by Bosnian Serbs when U.S. Marines plucked him out at dawn Thursday.
``If you want to find some heroes, that's where you should look because those are the biggest heroes in the world,'' O'Grady said of his rescuers.
O'Grady told his debriefers that he felt the plane break up and ejected from the aircraft. He found himself plummeting through cloud cover and emerged to see a village in Bosnian Serb territory.
O'Grady opened his parachute and landed several hundred yards inside a wooded area. He hid immediately by flattening himself on the ground and covering any exposed skin with his gloves.
Shortly after he landed, two civilians came within a few dozen feet of O'Grady but did not spot him. He reported that he could hear search parties looking for him, as well as occasional gunfire, and expressed relief that the search parties did not include dogs.
by CNB