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Hurricane Katrina
Navy fliers chided for joining rescues
By Times Staff Writer
Published September 8, 2005
PENSACOLA - When two Navy helicopter pilots and their crews returned from New Orleans, they expected to be greeted as lifesavers after ferrying more than 100 hurricane victims to safety.
Instead, their superiors chided the pilots, Lt. David Shand and Lt. Matt Udkow, the next morning for rescuing civilians when their assignment had been to deliver food and water to Gulf Coast military installations.
"I felt it was a great day because we resupplied the people we needed to and we rescued people, too," Udkow said of their Aug. 30 impromptu missions.
The two lieutenants were each piloting H-3 helicopters - a type often used in rescue operations as well as transport and other missions - on that Tuesday afternoon, delivering emergency food, water and other supplies to the Stennis Space Center, a federal facility near the Mississippi coast. The storm had cut off the center's electricity and water, and the helicopters were to drop their loads and return to Pensacola, their home base, said Cmdr. Michael Holdener, Pensacola's air operations chief.
But as the helicopters were heading home, the crews picked up a Coast Guard radio transmission saying helicopters were needed near the University of New Orleans to assist rescue efforts, the two pilots said.
Out of range for direct radio communication with Pensacola, more than 100 miles to the east, the pilots said, they decided to respond and turned around, diverting from their mission without permission from their home base. Within minutes, they were over New Orleans.
Flying over Biloxi and Gulfport and other areas of Mississippi, they could see rescue personnel on the ground, Udkow said, but he noticed there were few rescue units around New Orleans, on the ground or in the air. Seeing people on the roofs of houses waving to him, Udkow headed in their direction. Hovering over power lines, his crew dropped a basket to pick up two residents at a time.
Meanwhile, Shand landed his helicopter on an apartment building roof, where more than a dozen people were marooned. Women and children were loaded first and ferried to safety.
Udkow said he saw few other rescue helicopters in New Orleans that day. The toughest part, he said, was seeing so many people imploring him to pick them up and having to leave some.
While refueling at a Coast Guard landing pad in early evening, Udkow said, he called Pensacola and received permission to continue rescues that evening. The pilots and other military officials said they rescued 110 people.
The next morning, though, the two crews were called to a meeting with Holdener, who said he told them that while helping civilians was laudable, the lengthy rescue effort was an unacceptable diversion from their main mission of delivering supplies.
"We all want to be the guys who rescue people," Holdener said. "But they were told we have other missions we have to do right now and that is not the priority."
[Last modified September 8, 2005, 01:48:07]
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