Draft:Joe T. Milloy

Joe T. Milloy (Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia, 24 August 1913 - Washington, D.C., United States, 2 April 2002) was a United States Army Air Force officer of Serbian descent who served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Biography

Born Živko Milojković, he graduated from the University of Belgrade's School of Law and the Royal Yugoslav Military Academy.

Military career

Before the start of World War II, Milojković was a bomber navigator in the Royal Yugoslav Air Forcewho fought the Lufftwaffe for almost two weeks in April 1941 before the Axis and other Axis states (Independent State of Croatia, Bulgaria and Albanian irridentists]]) completed their invasion of Yugoslavia. Milojković and his crew were the last group of eight Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero to flee to Moldova, though only four made it, including Milojković's plane which he flew solo. Once there, the Serbian pilots were treated well since the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had a reciprocal agreement with Stalin. At the time, Hitler's Germany and the Soviets were on relatively good terms until 22 June 1941. On that date, the period of cooperation between the two ended the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact once Germany launched Operation Barbarossa against the Russians. Milojković and his crew were immediately released to the British who sent them to Cairo where they flew Hawker Hurricanes. When the British became short of soldiers, Milojković and his Serbian airmen found themselves in the trenches during the Second Battle of El Alamein.

Later, Milojković, now Joe T. Milloy, decided to sign on with the United States Army Air Corps and flew a B-24 bomber assigned to the 512th Squadron out of southern Italy on 24 November 1943. That day, he and his crew were shot down by a Messerschmitt fighter over Sofia while returning from a raid over Bulgaria. He spent the remaining year in the infamous Shumen prison of war camp before being released on 6 September 1944 when Bulgaria belatedly declared war on Nazi Germany. Milloy and other POWs traveled by train to Istanbul, then Aleppo, from where they were flown to San Pancrazio, Italy, back to their respective units. Milloy and his Serbian airmen crew were made U.S. citizens by an Act of Congress in 1947.

As a naturalized American citizen, now Joe T. Milloy went on to earn his MBA on a G.I. Bill from the University of Chicago. He served in Korea and Vietnam. At 55, he flew combat missions in an F-105, dangerously close to the ground for photo reconnaissance.