USCG PHOTO BY PETTY OFFICER 2ND CLASS KYLE NIEMI


Petty Officer 1st Class Steven Huerta hoists two children into a USCG rescue helicopter.


standardized training. Tis training allows a wide mixture of personnel and assets


from anywhere in the country to respond quickly, forming competent operational response teams. As one captain commented, a rescue swimmer from Savannah, a pilot from Detroit, and a flight mechanic from San Francisco could crew a helicopter based out of Houston and, despite having never met before, brief for and fly a six-hour mission, “rescue 80 people, and come back without a scratch on the helicopter.”


The Coast Guard Response Of the 60,000 survivors stranded in New Orleans, the USCG, using both surface and air assets and in coordination with other response agencies, rescued more than 33,500—a figure close to the total active-duty population of the service at that time. And of then–New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s original prediction of 10,000 lives lost, the final count was just 964 directly attributed to the storm. Tere are three reasons USCG personnel were able to


effect this outcome: ■ Te rapid response by the USCG, its standardized training


model, and literally centuries of experience in lifesaving missions


■ Te training USCG personnel receive to assess a situation and “act first, ask permission later”


30 ROTOR 2020 Q4


■ Te proficiency and ability of USCG rescue swimmers. When rescue swimmers established first contact with


evacuees, they instituted a hierarchy of priority for evacua- tions: the elderly, a person in a wheelchair, or someone with a mobility-limiting condition would go first. Next came mothers with small children. Te able- bodied would have to wait, often as long as a day, according to the needs of the situation. Before departing, the swimmers would designate a group


member to be in charge, tasking them with looking after the survivors until a rescue crew could return. Tis leader would often be the last person to be rescued. Twelve hours after Katrina’s landfall, a quarter of the entire


USCG helicopter fleet was conducting rescue operations across New Orleans and along the Mississippi coast. Just two days later, the USCG had eight fixed-wing aircraft and 43 helicopters conducting operations in the region, leveraging its mix of mission-modified HH/MH-65 Dolphins and HH/ MH-60 Jayhawks. While the two airframes are suited for similar missions,


the MH-65 Dolphin, manufactured by Eurocopter, is the service’s primary rescue helicopter. Crewed by two pilots, one flight mechanic, and one rescue swimmer, the Dolphin is driven by twin 853 hp Turbomeca Arriel 2C2-CG turbine engines, providing a top speed of 175 knots and a range of 290 nautical miles for all-weather and nighttime


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