KATRINA REMEMBERED continued from p. 31
to deliver hurricane victims to the terminal building.” Like other responders, Rowles remembers both the people who were saved and the ones who couldn’t be helped, not in the midst of so much overwhelming need. “On one of the flights that first night, we flew a physician
who was literally performing surgical procedures in the middle of I-10. When we extracted him back to Lafayette, his eyes were deep and empty with a face that reflected the pain and sorrow he was feeling. I remember his words in the helicopter: ‘I took an oath to save lives. Today, I condemned many to death, as I could not help them.’ ” At the apex of operations, the skies above the city were a
dense swarm of rotorcraft activity. Te tandem-rotor Chinook, the S-64 Skycrane, and the immense Sikorsky CH-53 could be seen flying overhead, along with most every other rotary-wing workhorse. Te sheer scope of airborne operations required assets to
fly dangerously close to one another. Air traffic control was at first self-service; pilots had only their eyes and a common radio frequency with which to coordinate their efforts, similar to small aircraft at airports that lack a control tower. Communications with personnel on the ground and at staging
areas were largely nonexistent. USCG Lieutenant Beth McNamara, a C-130 pilot on an
environmental evaluation flight during the initial response, recognized this problem and redirected her mission within the scope of her authority, creating the first airborne com- munication platform in the area. USCG C-130s continued to provide this service until the third day of rescue operations, when the task was assumed by US Navy E-2C Hawkeyes and US Customs and Border Protection P-3B Orions. Strategic decisions like these, made by personnel of both aviation and surface forces, contributed significantly to the effectiveness of USCG operations and made the effort a success. Disasters of such scope and scale represent more than
widespread disruption of life, interruption of livelihood, and untold property damage. Tey bring about suffering and far-reaching catastrophe to communities literally overnight and represent an erasure of personal infrastructure, a pro- found loss of security, and the introduction of long-term psychological trauma. But disasters like Katrina also bring out the best in those who train for them, knowing that someday they’ll be called on to place their own lives in peril so that others may live.
USCG Chief Aviation Maintenance
Technician Marc Triglia hugs his
11-year-old son Lucas before leaving
Kodiak, Alaska, to participate in
Hurricane Katrina recovery operations.
34 ROTOR 2020 Q4
USCG PHOTO BY PETTY OFFICER PAUL ROSZKOWSKI
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