WASHINGTON – A US former fighter pilot whose plane was shot down over Bosnia in 1995 and who survived six days without being captured has been appointed to a senior Defence Department position, the Pentagon said yesterday.
Scott O’Grady, 55, was named assistant secretary of defence of international security affairs.
In June 1995, then air force captain O’Grady became a national hero, having evaded captors for six days in a forest near Bihac, in northeastern Bosnia, after his F-16 warplane was struck by a Serbian missile during Operation Deny Flight.
Ejected at an altitude of nearly 7,000m, he suffered only a slight neck burn when he landed. He had meagre food rations, but his training enabled him to survive in the forest without being taken prisoner, despite the intensive research carried out by the Bosnian Serbs.
O’Grady was finally rescued by a team of marines in a risky operation under fire from missiles and small arms.
He recounted his adventure in his book, Return with Honor, which became the inspiration for the 2001 Hollywood movie Behind Enemy Lines starring Owen Wilson and Gene Hackman.
He was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for Valor upon his return.
After 12 years and 67 combat missions, O’Grady left the military in 2001 and became “a successful author, speaker, spokesperson, investor, and entrepreneur”, according to a brief Pentagon biography.
O’Grady was also one of the speakers at the 1996 Republican Convention in San Diego, California.
Having settled in Texas, he briefly ran for a seat in the state Senate in 2011 as a Republican. – AFP, November 18, 2020
