On that day, the Army of Republika Srpska shot down an American F-16C aircraft near Mrkonjić Grad with an SA-6 missile.

The remaining Jastrebs dropped to a few hundred metres, flying at low level to use the mountainous terrain to hide from radar and make their escape back to Udbina.

O'Grady dropped down to engage and fired an AIM-9M; the missile locked on and a near explosion of the warhead triggered by the proximity fuse severely damaged the tail of the targeted Jastreb.

Two remaining Serb aircraft were able to land as they ran out of fuel at Udbina Air Base in the Serbian Krajina in present-day Croatia.

His flight lead, Captain Robert Gordon "Wilbur" Wright, saw O'Grady's plane burst into flames and break in two.

Rubbing dirt on his face, he hid face-down as Bosnian Serb forces came upon his parachute, half a dozen times shooting their rifles only feet from where he was hidden in an effort to flush him out or kill him.

During the next six days, he put to use the lessons learned during a 17-day Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training session he had undertaken near his hometown of Spokane, Washington.

At 0440 local time, USAF General Michael Ryan and Navy Admiral Leighton Smith, commander of NATO Southern Forces, called US Marine Corps Colonel Martin Berndt aboard USS Kearsarge with orders to "execute".

These six aircraft had support from identical sets of replacement helicopters and jump jets as well as two Navy EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare planes, two Air Force EF-111A Raven electronic warfare planes, two Marine F/A-18D Hornets, a pair of anti-tank Air Force A-10 Thunderbolts, an SH-60B from USS Ticonderoga, and an RAF AWACS E-3D.

The pilots saw bright yellow smoke coming from trees near a rocky pasture where O'Grady had set off a flare.

The first Sea Stallion, commanded by Major William Tarbutton, touched down and 20 Marines jumped off the aircraft and set up a defensive perimeter.

Serb small arms pocked both helicopters; the Marines aboard heard the bullets hit inside the fuselage.

One round hit some communication gear in the chopper and the bullet ended up against Sergeant Major Angel Castro Jr.'s armor without injuring anyone.

At 0715 local time, 30 minutes after picking up O'Grady, the rescuers reported "feet wet", meaning they were over water.

[16] On August 30, after a Serb mortar attack on Sarajevo's marketplace resulted in dozens of civilian casualties,[18] NATO, supported on the ground by UNPROFOR and the UN Rapid Reaction Force, launched Operation Deliberate Force, a massive airstrike campaign which eventually lifted the siege of Sarajevo and led to the end of the war in Bosnia.