Mr. Vujnovich received the Bronze Star today for the single biggest rescue of US servicemen ever — and it happened in WWII.  Vujnovich, who is 95, led the OSS’s Halyard Mission to rescue more than 500 downed airmen, all shot down over Serbia while on bombing raids targeting the German oilfields in Romania.

And God keep Draza Mihailovich, a Serbian guerilla fighter who collaborated with Vujnovich on the rescue, and whose men helped keep the downed airmen out of Nazi hands until they could be spirited out.  Mihailovich was captured after the war by the communists, convicted of treason, and executed in 1946.  President Harry Truman later bestowed the Legion of Merit on Mihailovich, an award that was kept classified for years to avoid angering the Yugoslav communists.  His daughter Gordana was finally presented with his decoration in 2005.

The complicated politics and the difficulties of the rescues made it all the more amazing that such a mission could be pulled off in the final years of the war.

As Mr. Vujnovich said of his own belated award, “Better now than never.”  Yes indeed — thank you for a job so very well done, sir.