30-04-2022, 10:09 PM
Цитат:Operation Halyard Discussion
Tomorrow, President of the Halyard Mission Foundation, John Cappello, will be at the Judd Kendall VFW to discuss Operation Halyard. The mission, which ran from August to December of 1944, was the largest rescue of U.S. and Allied airmen from behind enemy lines during World War II. Roughly 500 were rescued. American Legion Post 43 of Naperville and the Judd Kendall VFW are sponsoring the event, which will take place from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
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Nate LaMar: Serbia secretly saved American airmen in World War II
This past spring, I made two business trips to Serbia. March was my first time ever to visit this Balkan country, which was part of the former Yugoslavia. Upon arrival, jet-lagged though we were, my distributor took a colleague and me to see a piece of history with which we were previously unfamiliar.
The rugged mountains southwest of Belgrade continue to lose population. After many winding hairpin turns through seemingly abandoned villages, we arrived in the village of Pranjani. This was among the villages to secretly provide shelter for many American pilots and air crews who had been shot down, as the Nazis had divided Yugoslavia and occupied Serbia.
In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which is the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), recruited two American soldiers who spoke Serbian, Lieutenant George Musulin and Sergeant Mike Rajacich, for a very dangerous mission behind enemy lines. Once on the ground, they linked up with Yugoslav Army Captain Zvonko Vuckovic. Together, they organized the villagers and American airmen and, by hand, converted a crop field near Galovica into an improvised air strip.
From Aug. 9 to Sept. 5, 1944, during day and night landings with C-47 transport aircraft escorted by P-51 Mustangs, 343 pilots along with others, totaling over 500 airmen, were evacuated in flights across the Adriatic Sea to Bari, Italy. This became known as Operation Halyard, which was the greatest American rescue mission of World War II.
Today, the poor village of Pranjani has a modern school. It was built as a gift from the USA through the US European Command in Stuttgart, Germany and the Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) of the US Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia. Throughout the building are mementos from various American visitors, to include the Ohio National Guard and Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, among others.
Mr. Manojle Jevtovic’s household was a safe house to the B-24 crew led by pilot Charles Davis. Today, his grandson, Slavko Jevtovic, has an agritourism bed and breakfast and restaurant near the improvised air strip. We were fortunate to have dinner there. On his wall was an award presented to his family in recognition of their dedication and sacrifice displayed in coming to the aid of U.S. airmen in the face of great danger. To this day, the Jevtovic and Davis families are very close!
The Halyard Mission Foundation was established with Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) John Cappello as its president. The foundation organizes a Day of Remembrance on the third Saturday of each September. Descendants of the rescued American airmen and descendants of those who rescued them gather for a solemn ceremony at the Pranjani Memorial Complex.
After I told him of my first experience in Serbia and this part of World War II history I never knew, my friend, Rob Davis, told me that this story has been written, and loaned me his book, “The Forgotten 500!” I am now in the process of reading it.
https://www.thestarpress.com/story/opini...273026001/
QUINCY — Dejan Cvetkovic calls out the time remaining in on the clock as the sounds of gloves hitting different training bags slap through the air.
Cvetkovic is the coach of Quincy’s Halyard ‘44 Boxing Club, training Monday through Thursday evenings at the Quincy Family YMCA. Originally from Serbia, Cvetkovic was a boxing title-holder in his home country. He co-founded the boxing club earlier this year after giving some help to friends that wanted to learn.
“It’s not just about helping kids be better boxers,” Cvetkovic said. “We want to help make them better people.”
The name of the club was inspired by Operation Halyard, a little-known WWII mission to save more than 500 American pilots and aircrews that had been shot down over Nazi-occupied Serbia in 1944. Serbian forces worked along side the U.S. Office of Strategic Services in the rescue, reinforcing the bond between that country and the United States.
https://www.whig.com/news/community/new-...1a2f3.html