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


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