AAFTER FIVE DAYS evading capture in Bosnia, Capt. Scott O’Grady, USAF,
call sign Basher 52, was exhausted, wet, cold, and hungry. On the run since
an SA-6 missile blew his F-16 apart, O’Grady couldn’t reach rescuers by
radio, and close calls left him shaken. Even his family began talking about
him in the past tense. But O’Grady had two things in his favor: his survival
training and the knowledge that his fellow servicemembers would fi nd him.
Early in World War II, the then- ater, and small ad hoc teams were con- rescued from behind enemy lines.
U.S. Army Air Forces had few combat ducting search-and-rescue operations The Cold War saw a major reduction
search-and-rescue (CSAR) skills. In in the Pacifi c, too. By the war’s end, or- in the number of rescue personnel,
1942, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, ganized rescue squads were operating whose missions mostly involved di-
USAAF, set up a program in which across all branches of the military. saster mitigation and the recovery of
U.S. troops worked with the Royal Air In the Korean War, rescue coordi- NASA astronauts after splashdown.
Force’s existing air and sea rescue or- nation centers organized personnel
ganization. By the following summer, retrieval efforts across the peninsula. Helos in Hell
the fi rst all-American rescue mission Air rescue squadrons airlifted 9,680 In Vietnam, the helicopter came into
had taken place in the European the- personnel to safety, with 996 of those its own for combat, troop transport,
Members of the search-and-rescue team that rescued Capt. Scott
O’Grady, USAF, conduct a training session aboard the USS Kearsarge (LHD-
46
3) (
abo
MILIT
ve). O’
ARY OFFICER
Grady (right) deplane
JULY 2009
s in the U.S. after his rescue in June 1995.
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