Airman recounts triumphs, tragedies, in WWII BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer It was 21-year-old Anthony Orsini's very first bombing mission as the navigator of a B-24 Liberator when he found himself "abandoning ship" over enemy territory in the hills of the former Yugoslavia during World War II in 1944. A photo of Anthony Orsini in September 1944 at the age of 21 in Italy. "Our mission was to bomb over the Ploesti oil fields [in Romania], which was heavily guarded because it was where the Germans refueled [their vehicles]," said Orsini as he thought back 63 years ago to the morning of July 21, 1944, at his home in Iselin on Nov. 14. "It was 8 a.m. and we were moving along without any problems until those black puffs of smoke of exploding shells that made your blood run cold. I felt the plane lurch and that's when I said a few prayers." As soon as the plane lurched, Orsini, who was with a more experienced crew of 10 airmen, knew right away that his plane had been hit. "We had lost two of our four engines and went from 21,000 feet altitude to 10,000 feet," said Orsini. "However, there was no panic in the ship even though we were alone, over enemy territory, and far from home. Maybe it was because we had gone through hell and knew we would safely land." Anthony Orsini, 84, of Iselin, displays the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, an Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, and a knife he received from the local villagers so that he could protect himself from the Germans, after he had to bail out of his aircraft over enemy territory in Yugoslavia during World War II. Then the time came to "abandon ship." "Those words were ringing in my ears," said Orsini. "One by one we jumped. I had been given the parachute a while ago and I had abused it playing football and basketball. I was hoping it would work in this critical time, which it did beautifully. Our protocol was count 1001, 1002, 1003 and then rip the cord, but I counted 1001 and pulled it." A reception for Orsini, 84, of Iselin, was held at the Woodbridge Main Public Library on Nov. 10 where he received a Mayoral Proclamation, naming Anthony Orsini Day, and a citation from the state Senate that was presented by Jack McGreevey on behalf of state Sen. Joseph Vitale [D-19]. In 1944, the OSS [U.S. Office of Strategic Services] launched a daring rescue, Operation Halyard, to recover more than 500 downed U.S. airmen trapped behind Nazi lines in Yugoslavia. Gregory A. Freeman, an award-winning writer and journalist, depicts the story of the rescued airmen in his new book, "The Forgotten 500." "It was exciting reading the book and it brought back a lot of memories," said Orsini, who relayed his experience to Freeman for the book. "I found reading the other airman accounts, that our experiences were similar." Orsini landed in a tree, not knowing he had broken his collarbone until he was rescued a month later, and was greeted by the open arms of a local heavyset woman. "I had passed out and after a second [I remember] the woman was trying to speak to me, but I did not know the language," he said. Orsini had met up with six members of the crew he had to abandon ship with and the B- 17 crew that was shot down the week before. "We were joined by an interpreter and Chetnik soldiers [of the Yugoslavian Army]," he said. "Dragoljub Mihailovic [Serbian general] was a freedom fighter and he told his soldiers to guard the American airmen at all costs … some gave up their lives to not hand us over to the Germans." The airmen's goal was to make it to Pryane where C-47 cargo planes would come rescue them. "We would travel from village to village where the young girls would wash our shoes, socks and feet," said Orsini. "The biggest pig was slaughtered for us to eat. We drank and we sang. We slept in the best beds." Orsini even received a marriage proposal, which he had to turn down, because he had a girl waiting for him back in the United States. Orsini remembered a time in the hills of Yugoslavia where he wondered if they were ever going to get out. "It was landlocked and the Germans were all over the place," he said. "The hurting airmen were placed in go-carts, which I was in with another airman who had hurt his ankle. A farmer had given us the ripest, sweetest watermelon when we heard the [villagers] yell "Germans, Germans." A 10-year-old boy handed me a handmade grenade. I didn't know what I was more afraid of, a handmade grenade that I didn't know how to operate or the Germans. We hid in the hills and they passed without seeing us." Back home in Jersey City, Orsini's mother Angiolina Orsini received a telegram by Western Union on Aug. 3, 1944, relaying the message that her son, who had just went overseas, was missing in action over Romania. Orsini decided he wanted to become an air cadet right after Pearl Harbor [Dec. 7, 1941]. By Jan. 30, 1943, he was in the service training. "On Jan. 29, 1943, I was a bank teller and a year later I was a navigator," he said. On Aug. 15, 1944, Orsini arrived at Pryane and had to wait patiently. On Aug. 27, Orsini was informed that he was going to evacuate that night. "We would strain our ears for those C-47 [cargo plane] motors," he said. "We would light oil lamps as a runway so pilots knew where to land. All this time we would cross our fingers hoping the Germans wouldn't detect us because the C-47s were unarmed. Thankfully, the Germans didn't detect us." Orsini was flown to Italy where he received a physical exam and was able to go back to his base in Taranto, Italy. "My crew told me that they knew I would make it, but there was a list of airmen who were killed in action and they had put my name on it," said Orsini. "We made fun out of it." Orsini said his main concern was letting his mother and family back home know that he was OK because he knew that they had received a notice telling them that he was MIA. "I was told a telegram was sent, but I sent one myself telling them that I was alive and well and all right," he said. Orsini was placed in rest camps because he was not fully healed from his broken collarbone. Then on Oct. 7, 1944, Orsini flew his second mission. "I was so ineffective," he said. "I was so afraid that I would be hit again and was cowering in the corner crossing my fingers." But as time went on and Orsini was flying mission after mission, it gradually became routine. "It would be my 35th mission on Dec. 28, where I would be injured again," he said. "I was sent home." Orsini didn't have time to tell his mother and family that he was coming home. "I reached the three-story home on Beacon Avenue in Jersey City and rang my mother's doorbell … no answer," he said. "My aunt lived on the second floor and I rang her doorbell, she couldn't believe her eyes and told me that my mother was at church [where she would go every single day]." Orsini walked down Palisade Avenue when he spotted his mother four blocks away. "I was focusing on her because I wanted to catch that moment where she recognized that it was me," said Orsini. "She finally raised her head and we started running towards each other. It was an emotional moment with everyone crying, laughing and hugging." Orsini spent the day with his mother, and when it was time for his father to come home he hid in the bathroom and then surprised him. The moment brought tears to Orsini's eyes. Orsini was given the option of serving in the Pacific Theater or honorably being discharged as an airman. Orsini decided to be discharged. Orsini received a Purple Heart with an oak leaf cluster and an air medal with two clusters. Orsini became involved with the goal of erecting a monument for the freedom fighter Draza Mihailovic in honor of his Army rescuing in excess 500 American flyers; however, the effort was rejected and fell on deaf ears. Mihailovic was a Serbian general, who was a leader of the resistance movement Yugoslav Royal Army in the Fatherland (Chetniks) during World War II. After the war, he was tried by the communist partisans for collaboration with the Axis and crimes against civilian population. He was sentenced to death by the firing squad and then buried in an unmarked grave. However, at the same time an independent U.S. commission concluded that Mihailovic was not a collaborator (with the Germans), and it was Josip Tito, war minister in the new government of the former Yugoslavia, who was feeding information to Winston Churchill, prime minister of the United Kingdom, that he was. President Harry S. Truman, on the recommendation of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, posthumously awarded Mihailovic the Legion of Merit for contribution to the allied victory, but it was classified a secret for 20 years by the State Department so not to offend the communist government of Yugoslavia. "Churchill did admit that they backed the wrong man [Tito]," said Orsini. On May 9, 2005, Mihailovic's daughter Gordana was presented with a decoration bestowed posthumously on Mihailovic by President Truman in 1948. Over the years, reunions have been held with the most memorable one for Orsini in 1978. "I was given a newspaper article that was in the Chicago Tribune titled] 'Dying ex-guerrilla [Vova Todorovich] looks for Yanks he saved' on Dec. 14, 1978," said Orsini. "Reading the article, I saw my name and I almost jumped out of my chair. He remembered that I taught him [songs] "O Solo Mio" and "I'm a Pistol Packin Mama." Orsini called the reporter who wrote the article and was on the next plane to Chicago where the ex-guerrilla resided. "All the media was there at the reunion with wires everywhere … ABC, CBS, NBC," said Orsini. "There were two other airmen, Robert Wilson and Jack Harold, there. It was incredible and Walter Cronkite [anchorman for the CBS Evening News at the time] chaired the reunion. It was an incredible day and it was crazy seeing ourselves on television." Orsini said all the village people they encountered and the Chetniks wanted at the time was recognition that Mihailovic was not a collaborator. "We couldn't even give them that," he said.