Draft:Eli Popovich

Eli Popovich (Chicago, Illinois, United States, 2 August 1908 - Chicago, Illinois, United States, 31 January 2000) was a legendary special ops officer who during the World War II went behind enemy lines to liese with resistance leaders and after with the CIA in covert operations as well. Popovich played a pivotal role in the secretive and famed Operation Halyard, declassified since 1997.

Biography

Eli Popovich was an engineer by profession, who joined the Office of Strategic Services from its inception, and a friend and collaborator of the most influential Serbian underground leader during World War II -- General Dragoljub Mihailovich.

As an OSS officer, Eli Popovich had already secured Josip Broz Tito's cooperation and promise not to obstruct U.S. efforts to airlift the downed Allied airmen when crossing the territories under the control of General Dragoljub Mihailovich, Deputy War Minister under the command of exiled King Peter II of Yugoslavia, now in London. In January 1944 Major Linn M. Farish and Lieutenant Eli Popovich had parachuted into Partisan HQ at Drvar to arrange assistance in rescuing American and foreign flyers. Following a meeting with Tito on 23 January 1944, orders went out to all Partisan units to do everything possible to locate downed airmen and conduct them safely to the nearest Allied liaison team.

Efforts to retrieve aircrews from Chetnik-controlled areas ran afoul of the tangled web of perfidious Albion politics. The British, who considered the Balkans as their part of the world within their so-called sphere of influence, had shifted their support to Tito and were determined to sever all ties with General Dragoljub Mihailović lest they offend the Communist leader. American attempts to maintain contact with Mihailović had been rebuffed by London. Nonetheless, General Nathan F. Twining, commander of the 15th Air Force, was determined to rescue his downed airmen. On 24 July 1944, thanks to the efforts of Twining and several OSS officers, General Ira C. Eaker directed the 15th Air Force to establish an Air Crew Rescue Unit (ACRU). This independent organization of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, attached to the 15th Air Force, would be responsible for locating and evacuating Allied airmen throughout the Balkans.

Selected to head the ACRU was Colonel George Kraigher of the AAF Transport Command. Kraigher had flown for the Royal Serbian Air Force in World War I. Prior to World War II, Kraigher had played a key role in developing a Pan American Airways air route from Miami to the Middle East via Brazil and West Africa. Taking over the rescue unit, Kraigher formed two parties. One would work with Tito's Partisans, the other with Mihailović's Chetniks.

Lieutenant George Musulin, an OSS officer who had led a liaison mission to Mihailović and one of the foremost advocates of maintaining contact with the Chetniks, was named commander of ACRU 1 (known as the Halyard Mission). Musulin, as Lieutenant Nelson Deranian, chief of OSS Special Operations Branch (SO) Bari suggested, possessed "the rugged character required to meet the hardships involved". Master Sergeant Michael Rajacich, borrowed from OSS Secret Intelligence Branch (S1) for this particular assignment, and Navy Specialist 1st Class Arthur Jibilian, the mission's OSS radio operator, rounded out Musulin's team.

American-born Popovich was one of the first OSS members working in liberated Italy. The OSS, the predecessor to the CIA, was a top-secret organization dedicated to undermining Axis powers through clandestine efforts. Through close cooperation with the Yugoslav underground combatants like Mihailovich and Tito, Popovich was instrumental in crucial resistance operations in Yugoslavia between 1943 and 1945, including the arming and supplying of Yugoslav Partisan units, the tracking of German troop movements, and the evacuation of Allied airmen.

Popovich was also privy to top-secret meetings with Mihailovich, Tito, and other wartime leaders, and his involvement diminished Axis strength on one hand and set the stage for post-war politics (Cold War) on the other.

Popovich remained an active member of the OSS and its successor, the [CIA]], until his retirement in 1969.

He was featured in multiple publications, namely the 1975 Esquire article titled "Six Good Spies" by Lenn Davis and "The Secret War" by George C. Chalou.

Eli Popovich died on 31 January 2000, and was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery.