Milo Radulovich
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Milo Radulovich (1926? - ) is an American citizen of Serbian descent and former reserve Air Force lieutenant who was accused of being a communist in 1953. His case was made public and helped turn the American people against McCarthyism (though Senator Joseph McCarthy himself was not directly involved).
In 1953, in the middle of the McCarthyist paranoia in the USA, Radulovich, a reserve Air Force lieutenant in Dexter, Michigan, was discharged because his father and sister were accused of being communists. The basis of this determination was the fact that his father, a Yugoslav immigrant, kept up on events in his homeland by subscribing to a number of Serbian newspapers. One of these papers was associated with the American Slav Congress, which had been labeled as Communist by the American government. His sister was a supporter of liberal causes, but he maintains that he was "apolitical".
Radulovich demanded an Air Force hearing, aided by retired lawyer Charles Lockwood, who worked pro bono. Lockwood contacted an editor at the Detroit News, which ran a story about the situation. Among the readers was a former classmate of Radulovich, attorney Kenneth Sanborn. He was also an Air Force lieutenant and also accepted no fee for his services.
The Air Force stripped Radulovich of his commission, which came to the attention of Edward R. Murrow, host of the popular See It Now program on CBS. For months, he and his team had debated on how to address to McCarthy's witch hunt, until Radulovich appeared. A camera crew went to Dexter and filmed a passionate interview with the lieutenant and his family.
The program went on the air on October 20, 1953. The image of this innocent man and his immigrant father led many viewers to question the impact of McCarthyist tactics for purging the government and military of potential security risks. Radulovich was reinstated one month after the broadcast.
He moved to California, where despite his reinstatement, he had trouble getting work. He was hired by a private weather forecasting business, later went to work for the National Weather Service, and was chief meteorologist at Capital City Airport in Lansing, Michigan when he retired in 1994.