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SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH CROWLEY OF NEW YORK IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESMONDAY, MARCH 16, 2009 Mr. CROWLEY: Madam Speaker, I am joined by the co-chairs of the Congressional Serbian Caucus, Representatives Melissa Bean of Illinois and Dan Burton of Indiana, in honoring a treasured constituent of mine and one of the unsung heroes of World War II, retired Major George Vujnovich. Major Vujnovich, a proud Serbian-American, was instrumental in 'Operation Halyard' and one of the last surviving members of that successful wartime mission. In the summer of 1944, Americans and Allied airmen flew hundreds of sorties over Europe with...

It was the best moment of Carl Walpusk's life. He was 19 years old, and the plane he was flying over Nazi-occupied Serbia had just been shot down. He jumped from the aircraft and pulled his parachute cord. Feeling the chute open, relief hit him. He realized he would make it. U.S. Airman Carl Walpusk and his wife Virginia. // Photo courtesy of Milana "Mim" Bizic "When you're that high up, you can't even tell you're moving," said Walpusk, now in his eighties. "But the last couple hundred feet, I tried to climb back up my chute." Despite his efforts,...

WORLD WIDE CELEBRATIONOF THE HALYARD MISSION HEROES!THE FORGOTTEN 500 BOOK REPORT CONTEST!Apart from the generous financial rewards kindly donated by various individuals as the prizes for the top three best book reports, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd place and the “Runner Up” reports that finish in the “Top Five” will be posted on my three websites on the internet dedicated to recognizing and celebrating Serbian heroes, among them General Draza Mihailovich, who was ultimately responsible for the success of the Halyard Mission Rescue Operation and the saving of the American airmen whose story shines in The Forgotten 500. The top five...

Here is a link for the Mihailovich program on "Radio, Television Serbia" that aired on April 28, 2009: Draza Mihailovich: Serbia's Biggest Secret. For those who know the extent of the censorship that has been imposed in Serbia on the topic of General Mihailovich over the years will recognize how significant this program is. The website address for "Radio, Television Serbia" is www.rts.rs (Don't be confused by the "RTS". Those are the letters in the website address, however in Cyrillic on the actual website pages, the title reads "RTC") The program is under "Emisije" then "Uputnik" The direct link for...

Jibilian is shown with Capt. Gary Bentley (right) of the Ohio Air National Guard 180th Fighter Wing. Photo by MaryAnn Kromer. Navy veteran Arthur Jibilian lived in Tiffin and worked at Basic for 28 years. Now a resident of Fremont, Jibilian spoke of his harrowing experiences in the European Theater of World War II. Last month Jibilian addressed the Midday Fellowship at St. John United Church of Christ in Tiffin. Accompanying Jibilian were his wife, Jo, his daughter, Deborah Jibilian, and Capt. Gary Bentley of the Ohio Air National Guard 180th Fighter Wing. Jibilian gave some background information about himself...

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A Chicago-based Serb group said Monday it is offering a $100,000 reward for anyone who can locate the grave of a World War II guerrilla leader executed as a traitor by the Communists. The burial site of Dragoljub Draza Mihailovic has been unknown since his execution in 1946 by the postwar Communist authorities. Mihailovic was convicted of collaboration with the Nazi occupiers in a hasty trial orchestrated by the new government. The Serbian National Defense Council of America posted the reward offer on its Web site. The group said that the reward would be paid only...

I’m about to tell you a story that, after you’ve read it, if your blood isn’t boiling . . . well, you maybe ought to book an appointment with your favorite mortician. Armchair Generals in the Pentagon during WWII and their civilian counterparts and bosses in the US State Department should have been taken out and given, at a minimum, a sound caning or horse-whipping . . . and at the worst, faced a firing squad. Their absolute ineptitude and politicking almost cost the lives of 513 Allied airmen and, ultimately, ruined the reputation and resulted in the firing squad...

Dear friends, Mike Papich of California has discovered that the discount bookseller Edward R. Hamilton has listed The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II by Gregory A. Freeman as one of the newest arrivals. The book has been discounted to only $5.95. Papich thinks it’s up to all of us Serbs to make the story go further. “I propose that we inform Serbs about this book sale. We should buy all of these books and place them in Public Libraries to help keep the momentum we...

General Draza Mihailovich in the hills of Serbia WW II Photo of Major Richard Felman, U.S.A.F. (Ret.) by Mari Shaefer. Richard L. Felman stands before a Douglas C-47 Sky Train, a plane similar to the C-47 transports used to evacuate 500 U.S. fliers from Yugoslavia during World War II. The photo was taken at Pima Air Museum in Tucson, Arizona. To the group of stranded American airmen he rescued during World War II, the Serbian guerrilla leader who once graced the cover of Time Magazine deserves a monument on federal land in Washington, D.C. To others, including Croatian-Americans, he’s a...

“Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.” “Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” “But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” George Orwell, "1984" (1949) When George Orwell published his political satire "Animal Farm" in 1945, he wrote a preface to the book that was deleted and censored from the rest of the text. In the preface, Orwell criticized the censorship and suppression that were endemic in Western countries. The censored, deleted, and...

Dnevne Novine Press 24 Aug 08 Halyard English Translation from Serbian RAVNA GORA MEN RESCUED 660 AIRMEN The American Air Attaché to the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Lt Col John Cappello, USAF, speaks about the Halyard Mission that was led by General Draza Mihailovich in WWII and presents the little known story about the achievements of the Pranjani villagers in Serbia. At the beginning of May 2008 at the American Corner in Kragujevac a very specific exhibition of photographs was opened. Its title was the “Air Bridge”. The citizens of Serbia had an opportunity for the first time to be...

This story was posted on FR back in 2007, but it's fitting to repeat now, since "Jibby" is in many of your prayers at this time. I'd like to share the story below about an O.S.S. World War Two veteran of the Halyard Mission rescue operation returning to Serbia 60 years later to pay tribute to the Serbian and American veterans who played out one of the great, heroic stories of World War Two that has remained largely hidden all these years. ____________________________________ The above is the back of signed photo given to OSS Radioman Arthur Jibilian by General Mihailovich...

Two men who changed history never met, but they should have. They had an enormous impact on each other’s lives. They both were men of war. One would survive. The other would not. The following gives voice to General Draza Mihailovich, the one who did not survive, and what he might have said to the one who did, the great Statesman Winston Churchill, had he had the chance to do so. Dear Winston, During a critical period in the history of the world, our paths crossed in a fateful way, though we would never meet. I would die first, without...

He clasps the crag with crooked hands . . . he watches from his mountain walls, and like a thunderbolt he falls. These words, written of an eagle, today are a far better fit for one of the most amazing commanders of World War II. He is Yugoslavia's Draja Mihailovich. Ever since Adolf Hitler vaingloriously announced a year ago that he had conquered Yugoslavia, Draja Mihailovich and his 150,000 guerrillas in the mountains south-west of Belgrade have flung the lie in Hitler's teeth. It has been probably the greatest guerrilla operation in history...

On July 17, 1946, sixty-two years ago, the life of General Draza Mihailovich came to an end. Why should we care? Why did his life and death matter? He was a military officer who lived at a time in history when his dedication to democratic ideals would bring him into conflict with the fascists, the Nazis and, in the end, the communists. It would be the communists who would finally silence him, but not before he and his people fought valiantly to prevent his country, Yugoslavia, from falling into communist hands after the war. It would be too easy to...

TOLEDO (WTOL) -- As families remembered their fathers this weekend, the community paid tribute to a local World War II survivor. Toledo Metcalf Field played host to the Plane Fun weekend, where the last living member of Operation Halyard was flown in on a bomber plane. News 11's Tanieya Lewis shares Arthur Jilbian's story. It is the first time in 60 years Arthur Jibilian is seeing these planes. They were flown by US pilots during WW II. Jibilian is the last survivor of Operation Halyard. That mission returned more than 500 American airmen home to their families. "I get goose...

WWII airman recalls series of narrow escapes from behind enemy lines By Bob Bauder, Times Staff Published: Saturday, March 8, 2008 11:38 PM EST Carl Walpusk has a soft spot in his heart for Serbia. In 1944, Walpusk, of Moon Township, parachuted out of a sputtering B-24 bomber into Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia and the hands of a rag-tag band of Serbian guerilla fighters known as Chetniks. For 33 days, the Chetniks escorted Walpusk and nine other members of his crew from one Serbian village to another — risking their lives and those of collaborating villagers — to keep the airmen safe...

On January 11, 1943, during the height of World War II, Twentieth Century Fox released the movie Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas on the guerrilla movement headed by Draza Mihailovich in German-occupied Yugoslavia. The movie starred Philip Dorn as Draza Mihailovich and Anna Sten as his wife. The movie was the Hollywood chronicle of the Chetnik resistance movement. Draza Mihailovich launched a resistance movement against the Nazi occupation forces of Yugoslavia in 1941. This was unprecedented and created a sensation in Europe and in America. In America, Draza Mihailovich became one of the most popular figures in the news. In the...

For five weeks Anthony Orsini's family thought he was dead. Killed in action fighting the Nazis. The Woodbridge man was one of more than 500 U.S. airmen shot down behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia in 1944 while bombing oil fields in Romania. Watched over by Serbian Chetnik guerrillas who hid them in local villager's attics, cellars and barns, the group was rescued by Allied forces in a daring top-secret airlift mission. "Operation Halyard," considered by some military historians as the single largest evacuation from Axis-occupied Europe, normally would have made bold front-page headlines and been featured in movie house newsreels....

NOTE - Major Richard Felman had many stories to tell about his experiences during his 50 year effort to inspire official recognition of the heroic contributions made by General Mihailovich and his Serbs to the Allied cause during World War II. Of the many that he conveyed to me personally over the years, his experience with Senator John McCain, who was his senator, was among those that left him the most disappointed. I know that if Richard Felman were alive today, he would be reminding John McCain of their meeting below. Aleksandra Rebic Truth About World War II MIAs Still...