VUKELIĆ: WE BELIEVE IN RENEWING SERBIAN-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP

DOBOJ, OCTOBER 3 /SRNA/ - The Serbian people, who contributed to the struggle for freedom by rescuing Allied pilots on Mount Ozren during the Second World War, believe in renewing Serbian-American friendship, State Secretary at Serbia’s Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs Nikola Vukelić said.

Addressing those gathered in Boljanić near Doboj at a ceremony marking the 82nd anniversary of Operation Halyard, Vukelić said he was proud to be speaking today from the heroic mountain of Ozren. Speaking about Operation Halyard, Vukelić said that the Allied pilots were fortunate to have landed in territory inhabited by the Serbian people, as they would have been killed or taken to concentration camps had they landed in territory controlled by the Ustaše or Muslims. He said that the greatest hero of the operation to rescue the Allied pilots was the Serbian peasant, or the ordinary people who form the foundation of the state and the Serbian nation. Vukelić reminded that US President Woodrow Wilson raised the Serbian flag over the White House, and that Harry Truman awarded the Order of Merit to General Dragoljub Draža Mihailović, commander of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland. Referring to the events of the 1990s as a sore spot in Serbian-American relations, he said he hoped new progress would be made in those relations. Vukelić noted that the leadership of Republika Srpska had supported current US President Donald Trump on several occasions, both when he lost and when he won elections. He stressed that Serbs believe in renewing Serbian-American friendship. In Operation Halyard – Air Bridge, carried out by forces of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland under the command of General Dragoljub Draža Mihailović, more than 500 pilots were rescued, including 60 Allied airmen in Boljanić. Operation Air Bridge was the largest operation to rescue American servicemen behind enemy lines in 1944 and 1945. In mid-October 1944, the Supreme Command of the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland, under pressure from Partisan forces, moved with its units from Serbia to eastern Bosnia. An airstrip was prepared on Mount Ozren, near the village of Boljanić outside Doboj, between October 22 and November 1, 1944. The commemoration of this historic event, which is of importance to Republika Srpska, is organized by the Republika Srpska Government Committee for the Preservation of the Tradition of Liberation Wars.