Thursday, May 3, 2012

Thank you for your service, George Vojnovich





And Godspeed on your final journey.  George is a hero.  He just died at 96 in his home in NY.  George received the Bronze Star for his actions as a member of the OSS during WWII--though sadly and shamefully he did not receive his star until 2010.  He formulated, lobbied for and finally implemented a plan to rescue 500 US Airmen who were downed in Nazi controlled Serbia in 1944.  In an effort to starve Hitler's war machine of a crucial resource, the Allies started sending waves of bombers over the oil fields in Romania.  And a lot of them got shot down.  George convinced his superiors to let him work with the underground Serbian group called the Chetniks, and more specifically with their leader Draza Mihailovich.  That was no small feat in 1944 when the US had formally embraced the Serbian Communists and they considered the Chetniks to be enemy collaborators with the Nazis.  Vujnovich lead clandestine mission after clandestine mission called Operation Halyard into Serbia and brought back the downed fighters.  Once again, thank you for your service George.

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