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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

O’Grady Needs Marines To Rescue ‘Normal Life’

New York Daily News

“I just want to have a normal life,” Air Force Capt. Scott O’Grady Saturday said of his future.

But as O’Grady learned the hard way during six days before Marines rescued him from Serb-held Bosnia, sometimes you just have to wait.

President Clinton and military officials have plans for him. So does David Letterman. So do the Hollywood studios who agree with Clinton that O’Grady’s story would make “a great movie.” Studio executives have been leaving messages at his father’s house in nearby Alexandria, Va.

“There have been people who have called with the idea of perhaps making a movie, but nothing has been settled at this point,” said Scott’s sister, Stacy.

O’Grady is due to fly home today from Aviano Air Base in Italy for a star-spangled welcome at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington. He will have a private reunion with his family there, more debriefings from military officials and some time to “decompress,” an Air Force spokesman said.

Monday, Clinton will be host to the fighter pilot and his family for a lunch at the White House. Following that, the president joins O’Grady for a ceremony at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary William Perry and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. John Shalikashvili.

On Tuesday, O’Grady is scheduled to appear at another Pentagon press conference.

On Thursday, he goes back to his hometown of Spokane, where officials at the Air Force’s Survival Center School will hear from their most famous graduate for a few days.

The Pentagon hopes lessons from his experience will help future military personnel who find themselves in a similar predicament.

Still to be set is a New York appearance for the Brooklyn-born aviator. Producers of the “Late Show with David Letterman” said O’Grady has agreed to be a guest on the TV show.

Family members are not yet sure when O’Grady will get to come to his father William’s house in Alexandria for the homecoming blast they have been planning.

“You know, he’s pretty booked up,” Stacy said.

But the Air Force promises that eventually he will get some time to himself.