Adriatic - Rescued Pilot O'Grady

(8 Jun 1995) T/I: 11:25:56 Rescued U.S. pilot, Scott O'Grady, was recovering on Thursday (8/6) aboard the USS Kearsarge amphibious assault ship in the Adriatic Sea. O'Grady was originally expected to return to the U.S. air base in Aviano, Italy, on Thursday, but doctors decided to give him extra time to recuperate from his six-day ordeal in Serbian- controlled territory in western Bosnia. O'Grady, who lists his home as Spokane, Washington state, is assigned to the 555 Fighter Squadron at Aviano. He evaded capture in Serb-controlled western Bosnia for almost six days after his F-16 fighter plane was shot down by a Bosnian Serb missile SHOWS: ADRIATIC SEA, 8/6 00:00 Aerial USS KEARSARGE at sea 00:15 MS helicopters on deck 00:18 CU helicopters on deck 00:24 WS chopper on deck 00:29 Kearsarge at sea 00:39 Presser on deck 00:41 Marines Colonel Berndt SOT: "Well I'll give you a little bit of a lead-in and then I'll turn you over to Lt Colonel Gunther. We were in a state of readiness, hoping and listening as many people throughout the world were I think, about the safety and security of the young captain and while he was in there we were anxious to get the opportunity to go in there and help. So early this morning, very early this morning, we heard over the radio that the contact had been made with him by an airborne platform, and we were told by the Commander in Chief of Allied Forces South to get ready to launch a package to recover him, given what he considered to be a small window of opportunity." 01:23 Marines Lt Col Gunther SOT: "We held at sea for the next 45 minutes as we assembled all our support aircraft and put the entire package together. At 0545 we pushed inland. The flight inland was approximately an 80 mile flight. We got into the objective area, held about 10 miles off, then pushed our Cobras in. They located Captain O'Grady. Once we had determined exactly where he was on the ground, they were kind enough to drop a smoke grenade right on the spot. We flew on in with the two CH-53's, landed, disembarked, picked him up and we flew on back. I think that's a quick summary of exactly what happened. "The Marines did in fact disembark. We disembarked one of the two helicopters and we brought in 23 of the marines on that particular platform. "We went out, we are .. this whole package that you see here is a force that has trained together over the last nine months, and without getting too far into our operational techniques we basically secured the area, then began an immediate search for his whereabouts. He of course came right up to us which is normally not the way you rehearse it, but he showed up, pistol in hand as the colonel described, and we put him aboard the helicopter.." 02:58 Marine SOT: "(He) Came in, shook everybody's hand who was there waiting for him, said thank you very much and we took him down to mediacal, to the treatment room, checked him over real well. He was a little hypothermic, he was shivering because he was cold, he was wet, he was tired, but other than that alert and certainly very happy to be where he was. "We asked him, trying to get an idea of how dehydrated he might have been, what he had been eating - specifically, if he'd been drinking any water from streams and so-on because that might have presented a problem; and that's when he said when the water he brought with him and the food he'd brought with him was done, said I've been eatings bugs and grass and drinkin rainwater. Said that (he'd) been out in the open, primarily as he described it 04:17 Aerial ship at sea Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...