Headlines
U.S. and Serbian military members commemorate the 65th anniversary of Operation Halyard
Aug 28, 2009
Sgt. Sean Mathis
PRANJANI, Serbia — Marine Security Guards for the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia Lance Cpl. Aaron Johnston and Gunnery Sgt. Laureano Perez lay a wreath at the Halyard Mission memorial here Aug. 15 during the 65th annivesary of the Halyard mission. (Department of Defense photo by Sgt. Sean Mathis)
PRANJANI, Serbia — Air Force Attache' for the U.S. embassy in Serbia Lt. Col. John Cappello, soldiers of the 1194th Engineer Company, and Marine Security Guards from the U.S. embassy attend the 65th anniversary of the Halyard Mission here Aug. 15 in honor of the Serbian people who saved the lives of over 500 U.S. Airmen and Allies during World War II. (Department of Defense photo by Sgt. Sean Mathis)
PRANJANI, Serbia — Soldiers of the 1194th Engineer Company visit the Svetog Spasenje, the St. Savior churchhere where where U.S. allies and airmen that did not survive to be rescued by the Halyard Mission were buried. The soldiers are visiting in honor of the 65th anniversary of the Halyard mission Aug. 15, honoring the Serbian people who saved the lives of over 500 U.S. Airman and allies. (Department of Defense photo by Sgt. Sean Mathis)
PRANJANI, Serbia — United States Marines, soldiers and airmen, along with members of the Serbian Armed Forces, stood on the hills here Aug. 10, 2009, honoring the local Serbs for their extraordinary sacrifice and heroism on the 65th anniversary of Operation Halyard.
The operation was the largest allied airlift conducted behind enemy lines during World War II, evacuating more than 500 allied airmen from the hills of what is now the Republic of Serbia. The troops' planes were shot down during bombing runs over the German-occupied oil fields of Romania. The local Serbs fed and sheltered these crash-landed allies and risked their lives to protect them from the Nazis.
"It's a privilege and an honor to be here, whether [the people of Serbia] saved one or five hundred, they went out of their way and put their lives on the line to save Americans and their allies," said Gunnery Sgt. Laureano Perez, detachment commander of the Marine security guards for the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, who laid a memorial wreath during the ceremony.
Under the direction of Chetnik leader Gen. Dragoljub Mihailovic, the surviving pilots and crew members were centralized in Pranjani because the surrounding hills and mountains protected them from the Nazis. The number of allies quickly grew and soon the local populace could not sustain the large number of stranded airmen. The troops, with the help of Mihailovic, began organizing Operation Halyard to evacuate the allies. The people of Pranjani along with Chetnik forces started the construction of runways, which allowed the allies to be successfully airlifted to Italy.
Shortly after Operation Halyard, the communist Yugoslavian government arrested and executed Mihailovic as a war collaborator. President Harry S. Truman posthumously awarded Mihailovic the Legion of Merit, the highest award ever given by the United States government to a foreign national, but the award was not physically presented to Mihailovic's family until 2005.
A revival of documentation and information concerning the Halyard mission has occurred over the past decade, sparked by improved relations with the Republic of Serbia through programs like the National Guard Bureau State Partnership ProgrammOhio is partnered with Serbiaaand the efforts of the rescued Airmen who wished to recognize their saviors.
Soldiers of the Ohio Army National Guard's 1194th Engineer Company were present at the Halyard's 65th anniversary in Pranjani, and visited the Svetog Spasenjiithe St. Savior churchhwhere the allies who died before they could be evacuated were buried.
"I want to tell you how good, honest and honorable the people from Serbia really are," St. Savior Priest Kosta Mitrovic told the soldiers.
Mitrovic met with three of the surviving rescued allies in 1995, one of whom was Richard Felman, who also testified to the hospitality and character of his saviors in his speech at the 50th anniversary of the Halyard Operation in Chicago, Ill., in May 1994.
"No sacrifice was too great for the Serbian people in making us comfortable," Felman said. "It was they who sheltered us in the hills and in their farmhouses, often at great risk to themselves. Those of us who were wounded received whatever medical supplies were available. If there was one slice of bread in the house, or one egg, it went to the American. If there was one blanket or one bed, it went to the American while our Serbian host slept on the bare ground. Many of the peasants were tortured, tortured to death, because they would not tell the Germans where we were."
The soldiers of the 1194th were then taken to a museum dedicated to the Halyard mission. The museum and the revival of the history itself is a huge undertaking, collecting information from documents that are more than 50 years old. At the head of this undertaking are Air Force Lt. Col. John Cappello, the U.S. attachh at the American embassy in Belgrade, and Daniel Sunter, the executive director of the Euro-Atlantic Initiative, a non-governmental organization started in 2005 to bring Serbia closer to NATO and the European Union. Cappello and Sunter are collecting historical evidence to make a documentary on the Halyard mission.
Cappello said they went through 13 boxes of unclassified documents in the National Archives related to the Halyard mission.
"We're trying to build bridges between Serbia and the United States using history," Sunter said.