The Recovery of Captain Scott O’Grady

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Recommended: NATO bombings on Serbia

While there are several incidents of successful personnel recovery recorded throughout history, the recovery of Air Force Captain (CPT) Scott O’Grady during the Bosnian War presents an interesting study. CPT O’Grady’s personal conduct as a result of his training greatly increased his chances of being recovered. Additionally, the units involved in removing CPT O’Grady from the battlefield operated in an almost textbook fashion.

History

In late 1992, as a result of the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Bosnian War started between different ethnic factions of Croatians, Serbians and Bosnians. The United States, as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), provided air power to the United Nations (UN) under Operation Deny Flight.1 This operation intended to preclude the opposing factions from using air assets for mass destruction of their enemies.
The United Nations placed military sanctions against the warring factions in the Bosnian war. In response, the United States Air Force as part of NATO activated the 555th Fighter Squadron of the 31st Fighter Wing based in Aviano, Italy.2 Fighter assets traveled across the Adriatic Sea to conduct combat air patrols over the enforced no fly area. The pilots would conduct aerial refueling over the sea and return to Aviano at the end of their shift.
As a result of increased use of heavy weapons around the city of Sarajevo, NATO aircraft bombed several Serbian weapons caches. The May 26, 1995 strike was aimed at reducing the ammunition available to attack the city.3 Intelligence satellites noted large amounts of secondary explosions that verified the targets were indeed weapons caches. This destruction of resources angered the Serbians, who retaliated by taking over 370 NATO...

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...edicated force such as this.

Bibliography

Auste r, Bruce B. “One Amazing Kid”. U.S. News & World Report. June 11, 1995. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/950619/archive_010384.htm.

Clines, Francis X. “CONFLICT IN THE BALKANS: THE RESCUE; Downed Pilot Rescued in Bosnia in Daring Raid.” NY Times. June 09, 1995. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/09/world/conflict-balkans-rescue-downed-us-pilot-rescued-bosnia-daring-raid.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm.

Cohen, Roger. “NATO Jets Bomb Arms Depot at Bosnian Serb Headquarters.” NY Times. May 26, 1995. http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/26/world/nato-jets-bomb-arms-depot-at-bosnian-serb-headquarters.html.

O’Grady, Scott. Basher Five-Two. New York: Yearling, July 6, 1998

Simpson, Ross W. “The Rescue of BASHER 52.” Leatherneck. September 1995. http://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/rescue-basher-52.

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