OSS agent who led WWII rescue of 500 dies in NY

[lewisipso]

NEW YORK (AP) — George Vujnovich, the intelligence agent who organized a World War II mission to rescue more than 500 U.S. bomber crew members shot down over Nazi-occupied Serbia, has died at his home in New York. He was 96.
Vujnovich is credited with leading the so-called Halyard Mission in what was then Yugoslavia. It was the largest air rescue of Americans behind enemy lines in any war.
A long retired salesman of aircraft parts, he died April 24 of natural causes at home in Queens, according to his daughter, Xenia Wilkinson.
The Serbian-American and Pittsburgh native was an officer of the OSS, the precursor of today's CIA, when about 500 pilots and other airmen were downed over Serbia in the summer of 1944 while on bombing runs targeting Hitler's oil fields in Romania, according to U.S. government field station files.
The airmen were hidden in villages by Serbian guerrilla fighter Draza Mihailovich, leader of the Chetniks, whom Yugoslav communist officials considered to be Germany's collaborators.
"This mission would not have succeeded without the great courage of Draza Mihailovich and his brave men," Vujnovich said at a 2010 ceremony in which he was formally awarded the U.S. Bronze Star Medal.

http://news.yahoo.com/oss-agent-led-...002540215.html

[Captain America]

Fading Light

Falling Night

Trumpet Call , As The Sun , Sinks In Fright

Sleep In Peace , Comrade Dear

GOD Is Near


Rest in peace , Sir. Your courageous service to your country will never be forgotten.

[Jenna]

Rest in peace.