P'cola helo pilots "counseled" for New Orleans rescues

A small but infuriating story from the Katrina rescue effort.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/12581783.htm

Two Navy helicopter pilots, Lieutenants Matt Udkow and David Shand, were on
a supply mission from Pensacola, FL, to Mississippi the day after Katrina
came ashore. After they dropped off their supplies, they heard a Coast Guard
call for helos to help rescue stranded people in New Orleans. Out of radio
range of their home base, the pilots decided on their own initiative to go
help out. Between them, the two helos pulled 110 people off rooftops,
including two blind people trapped in an apartment building. Then they
headed home. They didn't miss any scheduled missions and even managed to get
home before dark. So what did their CO, one Commander Michael Holdener, do?
Did he put them in for medals? Nope. He said "nice job" and then "counseled"
them for not coming straight home after dropping off their supplies like
good little boys.

"We all want to be the guys who rescue people," Holdener told The New York
Times. "But they were told we have other missions we have to do right now
and that is not the priority."

Nice to know that plucking people out of harm's way isn't a priority.

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when
wrong to be put right." - Senator Carl Schurz, 1872

"Thomas Schoene" wrote:

A small but infuriating story from the Katrina rescue effort.
They didn't miss any scheduled missions and even managed to get
home before dark. So what did their CO, one Commander Michael Holdener, do?
Did he put them in for medals? Nope. He said "nice job" and then "counseled"
them for not coming straight home after dropping off their supplies like
good little boys.

I heard that they had reported in to some local contact, being
out of radio range of their home base. Would a local commander have
authority to deploy them for an emergency sortie ?


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