WWII OSS Agent Dies at 96.

[n11pilot]

Former OSS operator George Vujnovich who led the rescue mission Halyard in the former Yugoslavia has passed away at his home in Queens, New York.

Agent Vujnovich commanded the operation that resulted in the largest air rescue of Americans from behind enemy lines in history. The object of the politically sensitive mission was to retrieve 500 American flyers who were downed over Serbia during raids on Hitler's oil fields in Romania.
The flyers were sheltered by Serbian partisans and moved from farm to farm to avoid capture by the German forces. Eventually the evading airmen where rescued by transport aircraft landing behind enemy lines directed through radio control by OSS Agents on the ground. The rescue, operating out of makeshift airfields took place over the span of several months.

In this time of Delta Force, Air Force PJs, SOCOM, Night Stalkers, SEALs, satellites and such it is hard to imagine the difficulty of Operation Halyard. Let me just say that if they incorporated the political overtones and tradecraft required for this mission into a modern James Bond film the viewers would walk away claiming that the idea was just too far fetched.



http://www.freep.com/article/20120502/N ... air-rescue

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/nyreg ... ar-ii.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Halyard

[Blackthorn]

Those guys were serious heroes. Hats off to George Vujnovich and his brothers!

[Super Ordinary Guy]

It is a shame that we use the word Hero so often now a days, it sort of tarnishes the meaning for the men who truly were heroic in wars gone by like these two gentlemen...

[Doctor_Jones]

another one of the greatest generation gone... may he rest in peace.