[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9915]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          U.S.-SERBIA ALLIANCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, since our founding, Americans have 
always had to fight for the liberty and freedom that we have. 
Throughout our history, we have had allies from other parts of the 
world on our side ready to help us, and we have been ready to help them 
stand together for freedom over tyranny.
  Today, I want to commemorate one of our most important allies: the 
people of Serbia. For more than 130 years, we have had a close 
relationship with the Serbian people.
  I have on my staff here in Washington a Serbian American, Blair 
Bjellos, who is my victim's advocate. When I was in Texas as a judge, 
my chief of staff, Elaine Dudich Stolte, who now runs the best 
children's assessment center in the world, worked for me. Both are of 
Serbian descent.
  Our friendship with the Serbians is based on our shared belief in 
democracy and standing up for liberty. During both World War I and 
World War II, our two countries fought on the same battlefield and our 
people shared and shed blood together. Because of that brotherhood, we 
have a special relationship.
  During World War I, Austria-Hungary tried to pick a fight with 
Serbia, through the July Ultimatum. Of course, the Ultimatum wasn't a 
deal at all, and it was purposely unacceptable and meant to provoke a 
war with the two nations. Despite being 10 times smaller than Austria-
Hungary, Serbia, an independent, freedom-loving nation, refused to back 
down to the aggressor. Like a true David versus Goliath, the Serbian 
people fought valiantly with us against the central powers in World War 
I. In the end, 25 percent of the Serbian population was killed during 
that war.
  Despite the toll World War I took on Serbia, when World War II 
started, they were allies again. There are numerous accounts of bravery 
that the Serbs conducted during World War II, and a lot of that was not 
known to the world until recently. I just want to talk about one of 
those.
  Perhaps the most inspiring report of bravery and brotherhood was 
shown during the Halyard Mission, when Serbian General Draza 
Mihailovich and Serbian American George Vujnovich led a mission to save 
American pilots that had been shot down by Nazi planes behind the lines 
in Serbia.
  In 1944, hundreds of B-17 and B-24 fighter pilots and their crews 
were shot down by the Nazi Luftwaffe over what we now know as Serbia. 
General Mihailovich immediately began finding those pilots and members 
of the crew and hid them in barns and farmhouses throughout Serbia, 
wherever he could find them shelter. He and his men and local Serbian 
civilians hid our troops. They risked their lives in doing so, and many 
of them later paid the consequences when the Nazis found out about it.
  When Mihailovich radioed Washington to alert them of his actions, 
here in the United States, Vujnovich, an OSS agent of Serbian descent, 
found out and planned a daring rescue mission. Vujnovich would train 
Allied Forces on how to act like Serbs and sneak them into Nazi 
territory to save the downed pilots and their crews. Once in, they 
would help guide U.S. planes into the country to pick up the downed 
pilots.
  With the help of local Serbs, the undercover U.S. soldiers and 
General Mihailovich built a makeshift runway in just 9 days. They had 
no sophisticated tools or machinery. They just used oxen, wagons, brute 
strength, and the tools that they could find. Over the next 6 months, 
Allied planes flew right under Nazi noses to land on that crude 
airstrip.
  I was most fortunate to have known one of those brave men. Serbian 
George Dudich was among those who risked his life to save those 
American downed pilots. When Mr. Dudich and his family later came to 
the United States after Communist Tito took over, he took time to find 
many of those downed pilots and crew members to meet with them once 
again. In total, the Halyard Mission saved 512 U.S. airmen. Not one 
American was lost, although many Serbs died in those rescues. 
Unfortunately, the United States took the wrong side after the war and 
we supported Tito, a communist, rather than Mihailovich, to lead 
Serbia.
  We did not recognize Mihailovich's deeds until recently, and now he 
has been awarded the Legion of Merit; and Vujnovich, at 95 years old, 
received a Bronze Star from the United States.
  Many Americans and many American Serbs served together then, and I 
want to congratulate the relationship and commemorate the relationship 
between the United States and Serbia during the wars and the 
relationship the two countries have today.
  And that's just the way it is.

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