Betrayed Valor Page 14
The inaccurate portrayal and blatant anti-Serbian propaganda perpetrated by the countries that supported the breakup of Yugoslavia, once again turned celebrated allies of America into modern day monsters.
The airmen watched in horror as the Serbian people were once again betrayed by the Americans, as NATO bombs fell on Belgrade and Serbia for seventy-two days straight, as Serbians were stripped of their rights in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, and as hundreds of thousands of Serbians were forced from their ancestral homes under the supervision of an American led NATO mission.
The airmen continued to tell their story throughout the civil war, in hopes that people would see through the propaganda and to the truth. In the end, communism fell and the truth about Mihailovic slowly emerged. Annually, various Congressmen, at the requests of the airmen and their families, continue to call for recognition of what Mihailovich and his Chetniks did for the United States.
In 1997, the British declassified information related to the Halyard Mission. Within those documents, it was confirmed that communist moles that infiltrated the British SOE did indeed play significant roles in the British decision to switch support from Mihailovich to Tito. The communist deceit was finally revealed.
On May 9, 2005, George Vujnovich, Arthur Jibilian, Clare Musgrove and a few other rescued airmen presented the Legion of Merit to Mihailovich’s daughter, Gordana. It was finally where it belonged, in the hands of a Mihailovich.
May the memory of all of the rescued airmen, the Air Rescue Unit, their Chetnik friends and General Draza Mihailovich be eternal. And may their sacrifices and bravery never be forgotten.
For more information of the Halyard Mission, please read:
The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II. Freeman, Gregory A., (2008) Penguin.
The Web of Disinformation-Churchill’s Yugoslav Blunder, Martin, David (1990), Harcourt Brace Jovanovic, New York, NY
Mihailovic and I. Felman, Richard, L. (1964)
Nikola Tesla Society http://www.teslasociety.com/jibilian_remembered.htm
A special thank you to Father Dragomir Tuba and St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church, Phoenix, AZ for allowing access to The Major Richard Felman Operation Halyard Collection, from the library of St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church.