During my original research for the book I wanted to tell the story of the aircrews that flew the rescue planes and the fighter pilots who protected them, but little information was available. I knew that they would have been part of the Fifteenth Air Force, but nothing more. As The Forgotten 500 became popular, veterans, Serbian Americans, history buffs, and other readers realized that they knew additional details and passed them on to me. I was speaking with one of the heroes of the story, the late, great Arthur Jibilian, when he casually asked me if I knew that the Tuskegee Airmen flew fighter cover for the rescues. I was surprised and delighted to hear this and immediately set about researching the connection between Operation Halyard and the first black pilots in the military. The bravery of the Tuskegee Airmen is a perfect complement to that of the men like Jibilian and his colleagues, many of them first-generation Americans, who risked their lives to carry out the rescue.
