“ONCE WE DIED TOGETHER”: Americans in Chicago remember Serbian heroes who saved their pilots (VIDEO)

Last night in Chicago, the Halyard Mission Foundation celebrated the 80th anniversary of the operation in which the Serbian people and units of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, under the command of General Dragoljub Mihailović, saved over five hundred American and Allied aviators during 1944, which was also the largest rescue operation in World War II.

On this occasion, the leaders of this organization, together with distinguished guests from the diplomatic and business circles of the Serbian-American community, recalled the action in which Serbian peasants and soldiers, risking their lives under German occupation, during the summer of 1944, from two locations, Pranjani in Serbia and Boljanić Field in the Republic of Srpska, with the help of American aviation and the OSS (today’s CIA), managed to transfer hundreds of American and British pilots and airmen to safe ground.

Recalling those days, the president of the Halijard Foundation, retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel John Kapelo, emphasized the importance of preserving the memory of this feat as the foundation of future relations between Serbia and the United States.

“When we started the Foundation, we faced two problems. Neither the Serbs nor the Americans knew about this historical feat, and in Serbia we faced an additional problem, since during the communist period this story was marginalized and deliberately forgotten, due to the participation of Chetnik forces in it. We have managed over the past 8 years, since the Foundation’s existence, to ensure that the state of Serbia includes September 21st in the calendar of official holidays, as well as that the story of the Halijard mission ends up in textbooks that Serbian children learn from. Today, many Serbs and Americans know about Halijard, but we are not satisfied and will not stop there,” said Kapelo, a former military attaché at the US embassy in Belgrade, where he first learned about the Halijard mission.

Ranko Ristić, a member of the Halijard Foundation Board, has devoted the past few years to finding the families of American aviators whose fathers and grandfathers were saved during the Halijard Mission.

“We managed to find a large number of descendants of aviators across America, they participated in our gatherings, and some of them were our guests in the Memorial Center in Pranjani in previous years, where they met with people and families who helped and cared for their ancestors. There were many emotional moments there, tears…The only black pilot who was evacuated during the Halijard mission, James Walker, once gave his boots to 14-year-old Radoljub Janković before returning to America. This year, Walker’s son Kenneth went to Serbia and brought Radoljub a new pair of boots as a gift, and that was truly a sight I will remember for the rest of my life,” recalled Ristić, whose company Zastava Arms USA was also the main sponsor of the event, and added:

“Serbia and America have had difficult moments in diplomatic relations over the past 30 years, but they were previously allies in two world wars, and the Serbian flag is one of the few that has flown over the White House. Memories of Serbian and American heroes from the Halijard mission should be a guarantee for us to renew broken ties, restore trust and build a common future as friends and allies.”

The celebration was attended by the consul general and vice consul of the Republic of Serbia, Andrija Zečević and Aleksandar Đorđević, as well as the consul general of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Chicago, Tatjana Telić, who addressed the gathering and said in a statement for the Serbian Times:

“This is a beautiful occasion to remember the heroic action in which the Serbs, who were always on the right side of history, risked their lives under the German occupier in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, in order to save American and Allied soldiers. It is a gesture worthy of admiration and a good guarantee of future relations between the Serbian and American peoples and our states. I am also glad that the Republic of Srpska officially marks this historical event at Boljanić Field and preserves this important and valuable memory.”

The gathering was also attended by the consuls general of allied countries from World War II, Canada and Egypt, Medlen Fereira and Nada Draz, the vice president of the Association of Serbs from the Republic of Srpska in Chicago, Željko Živak, as well as the president of the board of the Church of Saint Sava in Milwaukee, Miroslav Jović.

The special guest of the evening was former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojević, who has previously supported the Halijard mission, and will certainly remember this gathering for a long time for another detail, which he said would change his life from the root.

Namely, after the speeches of the guests and hosts were finished, Ranko Ristić announced an auction of the Halijard mission flag with which he had previously jumped from an airplane at an altitude of 10,000 feet.

“The best Serbian parachutist with over 18,000 jumps, Slobodan Babović, in whose Wisconsin Skydiving Center I overcame my fear of heights, all because of the Halijard mission, decided to donate two jumps for those who win the auction for this flag,” said Ristić, after which the bidding began.

The auction was won by Serbian businessman from Chicago Filip Milivojević, owner of Denver Cargo Inc, who offered an amount of $3,200, but on the condition that Governor Rod Blagojević jump with him, who after a little thought decided to accept the offer, with the comment:

“This will be the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life, I’d better have gone back to jail,” Blagojević joked at his own expense.

“WITH RAKIJA, THE JUMP WILL BE EASIER: Blagojević with George Božić” Given that the skydiving season has ended for this year, Serbian Times will be on-site in Wisconsin in April to exclusively film these jumps.

Ristić, on behalf of the Halijard Foundation, thanked the other sponsors at the end of the official part of the reception: Savić Winery, as well as Zarić rakija and the company that distributes it, Božić Imports, and Slobodan Babović’s flight school, Wisconsin Skydiving Center.