THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 22, 1995 TAG: 9509220479
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
The Norfolk-based carrier Theodore Roosevelt was ``a key player'' in at least three missions intended to locate and rescue two French pilots missing in Bosnian Serb territory, sources said Thursday.
Two American crew members were wounded in the third attempt, Reuters and NBC News reported Thursday.
Military sources told The Virginian-Pilot that the Roosevelt had been the launching point for one rescue mission and had served as a way station - ``a lily pad'' in the Adriatic - for other missions.
NATO forces have not found the pilots. The French warplane, a Mirage 2000, was downed Aug. 30 during NATO airstrikes.
Bosnian Serb forces, using heat-seeking, shoulder-borne missiles, shot down the jet while it was flying east of Sarajevo. Bosnian Serb TV showed the smoldering wreckage but offered no clues to the fate of the crewmen.
Pentagon officials have said since then that the French pilots would be the subject of the same kind of massive search that helped Americans rescue Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady after his F-16 was downed by the Serbs in June.
Intelligence sources reported shortly after the French warplane was shot down that signals had been received from the airmen and that they had evaded capture up to that point.
Although there had been no reported contact since with the missing pilots, NBC quoted sources Thursday as saying that a German reconnaissance flight had taken a picture of a man pointing at a sign with the name and number that had been assigned to the downed jet.
French Defense Minister Charles Millon told a closed meeting of the French Senate on Wednesday that he believes the two pilots are alive and in Bosnian Serb control.
On Thursday, Millon confirmed that rescue missions had been launched and that at least one had come under fire.
Reuters and NBC said the first rescue attempt was launched from the Roosevelt at 3 a.m. local time Sept. 5 when aircraft carrying two, eight-man Navy SEAL teams took off from the flight deck.
The SEALS returned within several hours after encountering artillery fire, Reuters said. No one was reported hurt and there was no contact with the missing airmen.
The result was similar on Sept. 6 when a second attempt was mounted using U.S. forces and French commandos, some from a NATO air base in Italy.
The next night a similar mission was sent to an area near Pale, the headquarters of the Bosnian Serb rebels just east of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Serb forces intercepted the rescue mission and opened fire with automatic weapons. In the heavy exchange of gunfire, two U.S. servicemen were injured. It was unclear what losses, if any, the Serbs suffered.
The identities of the injured U.S. personnel were not available Thursday night.
Since then, there have been no additional rescue missions and no contact with the missing pilots, NBC said. But the network quoted Pentagon sources as saying further rescue missions would be mounted when there was evidence that the pilot might be located. MEMO: Staff writer Dale Eisman contributed to this story. by CNB