TURMOIL IN THE BALKANS : ‘Humbled’ Airman Thanks God and Calls His Rescuers ‘Heroes’

Here is Capt. Scott F. O’Grady’s speech at Aviano Air Base:

Yeah, right!

Thank you all for coming out. This is overwhelming. I just cannot believe the response I’m getting. I’m really humbled by all this, it’s amazing. I don’t believe that this is happening.

Right off the bat, I want to say hello to my folks back home, my dad and my mom, my sister and brother. Then all I want to do is to make a short statement, then I’ll be talking to you all here in the course of the next day or two later on.

Right off the bat, the first thing I want to do is thank God. If it wasn’t for God’s love for me and my love for God, I wouldn’t have gotten through it. He’s the one that delivered me here, and I know that in my heart.

I thank my family, thank all my friends, everybody in the United States, all the NATO countries.

When I was out there I knew you were all there behind me. I could hear you and I knew it. I knew that everything that could be possibly done was being done. I had no doubt in my mind about that.

I got a lot of respect for everybody that serves in a uniform, either in the United States or other NATO countries, our allies. And I appreciate everything you did to get me back to be standing here at Aviano.

But at the pointy end of the spear, the people I want to thank are the people who came in there and risked. . . . They say they were just doing their job, but they came in there, they risked their lives to get me out. Those are the people on the USS Kearsarge, the men and women of the Navy and the Marines who came in there and saved me. If you want to find some heroes, that’s where you should look, because those are the biggest heroes in the world [if you] ask me who the hero is. So.

That’s all I’ve got to say. I’m getting pretty emotional right now, so I’m going to cut it off right here.

So again thank you, and God bless you all. Thank you.