Should they rescue him in darkness? Or wait until morning when they would have support? TheyВ needed to rescue him with helicopters, but fighter escort planes would not be available until the next day.

At about 2 AM, he made voice contact with OвЂ™Grady while the Serbs listened in. He flew low, risking Serbian fire and a reprimand from his superiors. His wingman said they had to get back, but HanfordвЂ™s instincts told him he was onto something. By then, he had been flying for over three hours and only had 20 minutes of fuel left. At 1:25 AM, he picked up something over his radio static. Hanford was with the 510 th Squadron completing his late night patrol on June 8.

The USS Kearsarge in the Gulf of AqabaД¬aptain Thomas O. June 7 again found him firing his beacon in brief bursts, hoping NATO would find him before the Serbs. He removed his socks and squeezed the water out of them, which was when he realized he had trench foot. By evening, he was delirious with thirst. It rained on the fifth day, giving OвЂ™Grady some relief, but it also made him colder. Leave him to the paramilitaries they could get blamed for his death. The military were camped barely a mile away when they received new orders. It sent a constant signal over a 100-mile radius, so he activated it in two-second bursts, hoping to conserve his battery and avoid giving his position away to the Serbs. Desperate, he resorted to his radio beacon. An East German 2P25 TEL SA-6 in the late 1980s Suspecting it to be a Serbian trap, they ignored it. NATO pilots picked some of it up, but it was too far away from OвЂ™GradyвЂ™s crash site. He made it up a hill on the evening of day four, but still could not reach anyone via radio. By the third day, his rations ran out, so he ate ants, leaves, and grass. By late afternoon, hunger struck вЂ“ he had last eaten in Italy. The next morning, a Serbian chopper flew so close to him he could see the menвЂ™s faces. He stayed hidden and did not use his radio not on the first day вЂ“ that is how downed pilots get caught. More men came, firing randomly into the forest before moving off. Moments later, a man and a boy stopped within six feet of him, looked around, then walked off. He hit the ground and ran вЂ“ leaving his backup radio and the bulk of his supplies. Fortunately, as he reached the treeline, a strong wind blew him away from the road and deeper into the trees. From their mismatched clothing he guessed they were not military. It took him 25 minutes to descend, and sure enough, a truck was headed his way. OвЂ™GradyвЂ™s best bet lay with the military. There were also paramilitary groups and opportunists with far less discipline and even fewer scruples. His bright white, orange, green, and brown parachute was advertising his arrival over clear skies.Дuring the Bosnian War, it was not just the Serbian military who fought. Thanks to adrenaline, he did not realize his face and neck were burnt, but that was the least of his problems. The F-16 burst into flames, and he watched in horror as it plummeted. Wright saw it coming and tried to warn OвЂ™Grady вЂ“ too late. The 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Airbase on April 1, 1994 With a top speed of over 1,864 miles an hour, it hit the F-16 within 10 seconds from launch. The beam hit OвЂ™GradyвЂ™s plane, then bounced down to the oncoming missile which honed in for the kill. The Serbs fired a second missile and briefly turned their radar on. As soon as it matched their altitude, it exploded between them as they flew over a mile apart.ДЄltitude confirmed. Without radar guidance, the missile was invisible to the Americans. That short radar signal had given the Serbs the planesвЂ™ speed, heading, and altitude. WrightвЂ™s radar alarm briefly went off at 2:50 PM, but NATO thought it was a false alarm. They were.Дown below, a Soviet 2K12 Kub, also known as an SA-6, was ready. Although the Serbs had surface-to-air missiles, F-16s carried a device that warned pilots if they were being tracked by radar. They reached Bosnian airspace thirty minutes later and began their patrol. OвЂ™Grady (center) at a press conference after his rescue, with Captains Hanford (left) and WrightДЄt 1:15 PM, he and Captain Robert Wright each took off in their F-16 Fighting Falcons. A member of the 555 th Fighter Squadron, he was living in the Italian village of Aviano because of its air base вЂ“ headquarters of the US Air Forces in Europe (USAFE).

OвЂ™Grady knew all this as he got ready for work on June 2, 1995. If they succeeded, they would sometimes vent their rage on surviving pilots. The Serbs retaliated by shooting down NATO planes. NATO then backedВ this up with Operation Deny Flight.

Movie behind enemy lines