When you’re hungry, you’ll eat anything, >> he ate ants

In June 1995, Captain Scott O’Grady was flying a patrol over Bosnia for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as part of an effort by the major Western powers and the United Nations to stem years of bloodshed in Bosnia. His radar showed that a surface-to-air missile was seconds from destroying his plane. After he bailed out, he pulled his parachute cord too quickly. O’Grady drifted slowly over a clear sky at twenty thousand feet, in full view of hostile Serbian soldiers.

Upon landing, he scrambled into a clump of nearby bushes and began six agonizing days of life on the run.

“Most of the time, my face was in the dirt, just praying that no one would see me,”   O’Grady said.   He described himself as “a scared little bunny rabbit, trying to hide, trying to survive… I ate grass. When you’re hungry, you’ll eat anything.” ”Anything” included ants.

“They scamper really quickly and it’s hard to get them,” he laughed.
After finishing the water in his survival kit, he prayed for rain, and “God delivered.”  He then relied on tricks from his survival training: collecting dew in plastic packets and squeezing rainwater from sponge and from his wool socks.

O’Grady was finally able to move into a clearing and send off a signal from his radio that led to helicopter rescue. After sending up flare to guide the helicopters, O’Grady loaded his gun and made a frantic dash, forgetting his training for the first time.  

“The one thing they tell you is never run at a helicopter with a loaded gun,   ”he said with a grin.

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