Former Air Force Capt. Scott O'Grady received a pleasant surprise last night on his arrival in Toledo.
There to greet Mr. O'Grady at the Stranahan Theater in the Masonic Complex on Heatherdowns Boulevard was one of the Marines who plucked him from hostile Bosnian territory on June 8, 1995, six days after his F-16 had been downed by a Serbian missile.
The daring rescue mission made headlines around the world, and earned Mr. O'Grady, who had been on the run from Serbian troops, receptions at the White House and the Pentagon.
“I'm glad to see you,” Mr. O'Grady told Tom Hillesheim, of Tontogany, as the men warmly shook hands. “I never knew how good-looking a guy in camouflage was until I saw you and the others coming to get me out of Bosnia.”
It was the first time the men had seen each other since their ride out of Bosnia in a CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopter.
Mr. Hillesheim, a Start High School graduate, now works as an electrician. “It was a scary mission,” he recalled, noting that the Serbs fired two missiles at the two helicopters dispatched to get Mr. O'Grady. Both missiles missed.
Mr. O'Grady, 36, resigned from the Air Force last year and is studying for a master's degree in Biblical studies at Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas. He was in Toledo as a speaker in the Junior League of Toledo's 27th Town Hall Lecture season.
He recounted to an audience of 350 his adventures while on the run in Bosnia, how he ate ants for nutrition, and moved only at night, suffering cold, hunger, and thirst.
When he was shot down, then Captain O'Grady was enforcing the NATO no-fly zone over Bosnia. The Serbian surface-to-air missile slammed into the belly of his fuel-laden jet, causing it to explode.
In an instant, the cockpit was engulfed in flames, and the nose section containing it broke off; Captain O'Grady pulled the ejection handle and parachuted to the ground.
But not to safety. As he floated down, he could see Serbian troops closing in. He quickly discarded his parachute and hid. In a few minutes, Serbian soldiers passed within a few feet.
After six days of eluding the Serbs, he reached a hilltop from which he sent a radio signal that was picked up by U.S. forces.
In a news conference before his talk, Mr. O'Grady lamented the loss of American servicemen.
“When something happens to a military person, every member of the military feels that. We're a family. When there are casualties, it really hits home,” he said.
Of the war on terror, he said: “This is a war that I know is going to last the rest of our lives. We need to support our government and defend ourselves against this threat. If we don't go out and fight the enemy, they are going to come here and attack us again.”
First Published March 7, 2002, 8:18 a.m.
