Join us on August 29 from 6-8pm and learn more about the Halyard Mission!
Admission includes:
- Networking and reception 6-7pm
- Presentation 7-8pm
- Full museum access
More on the Halyard Mission:
In 1944, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), in partnership with 15th Air Force, created a team to coordinate with General Draža Mihailović, commander of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, to evacuate Allied airmen who had been shot down in German-occupied Serbia. The team, designated as Air Crew Rescue Unit 1, was code-named Operation Halyard.
Over the course of four months, over 500 airmen -- some injured -- were rescued with the assistance of the Yugoslav Army and the Serbian population. Operation HALYARD was the largest and most successful rescue mission of American aircrews in our nation’s history. Learn how between August through December 1944, a three-man OSS team, along with Serbian anti-fascist/anti-communist partisans, known as “Chetniks,” and the 1st Air Crew Rescue Unit of the U.S. 15th Air Force, airlifted hundreds of U.S. airman out of Serbia.
Lt. Col. John Cappello, Retired U.S. Air Force, will share details of the rescue. Cappello founded the Halyard Mission Foundation in 2015 with the goal of educating, commemorating, and increasing awareness of the Halyard Mission, the rescue of over 500 U.S. airmen during WWII, and the role Serbs played in the success of the mission. He is currently the president of the Halyard Mission Foundation.
Maj. Gen. John C. Harris, Adjutant General, Ohio National Guard; and Serbian Ambassador to the United States Vladimir Maric, will join the discussion to provide comments on “The U.S. – Serbia Partnership: From Operation Halyard to Today”
https://www.halyardmission.org/
