Chicago Sun-Times

Marine says support in U.S. was `amazing'

April 20, 2001

GENESEO, Ill.--The only Marine among the 24 U.S. surveillance plane crew members who were detained on China's Hainan island says he was amazed by the response of the American people.

"It was amazing to hear about the yellow ribbons and the support," Sgt. Mitchell Pray told the Dispatch of Moline on Wednesday during a visit to his parents' rural home here. "We didn't know the incident was that public. Overwhelmed is a better word. The support that everyone has shown, it means a lot to me and I think it means a lot to the entire crew."

"It went a long way in keeping our spirits up," Pray said of reaction to the standoff that followed the emergency landing of the crew's plane after it collided with a Chinese fighter April 1 over the South China Sea.

Pray said the plane took a dive after the collision and he feared that the crew would not survive.

"When Lt. [Shane] Osborn managed to get the plane level--and that was no small feat--we prepared to execute a bailout," he said. "Everybody got into parachutes, and we were getting ready to open up the rear hatch. They said they could keep the plane together until we reached land."

The landing was "nothing short of a miracle," Pray said.

"Once we were on the ground, there was a short period of relief, and then I started preparing myself for what was to come," he said.

-- Anonymous, April 20, 2001