Navy Pilots Told To Stick To Supply Mission After Rescuing Storm Victims

Two Navy helicopter pilots who rescued more than 100 civilians in New Orleans last week were reminded, but not reprimanded, by their commander that their primary mission was to resupply rescuers on the ground, a Navy spokesman said. Two women are rescued by a US Navy helicopter 05 September 2005, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Two navy helicopter pilots who rescued more than 100 civilians in New Orleans last week were reminded, but not reprimanded, by their commander that their primary mission was to resupply rescuers on the ground, a Navy spokesman said The New York Times reported that the pilots, Lieutenant David Shand and Lieutenant Matt Udkow, were chided by their air operations commander for rescuing civilians when their assignment was to resupply military operations along the gulf coast. The Times said Udkow was temporarily taken out of the flying rotation and assigned to oversee a kennel that was set up to take care of pets of service members evacuees from hurricane damaged areas. A Navy spokesman at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, where the pilots were based, said they had flown eight missions since the incident last Tuesday. Udkow "was never taken off any mission," Lieutenant Jim Hoeft said by telephone from Pensacola. He said the pilot had volunteered to oversee the kennel as a side duty. "Our number one focus is to save lives, and these pilots are to be commended for what they did. In fact the air operations boss commended them for what they did. Nobody was reprimanded for their participation in these rescue efforts," Hoeft said. "What he did do -- and this is important for everybody in the military -- is he reminded them of what their primary mission was," he said. "We have search and rescue teams in place, and those teams are going out and performing rescues. Those guys have to be resupplied, and that was the primary mission of these helicopters," he said. The incident occurred August 30, the day the levees gave, flooding New Orleans. The military has since come under fire for being slow to respond in the days immediately after the flooding. Shand and Udkow were returning in their Navy H-3 helicopter from delivering supplies to the Stennis Space Center near the Mississippi coast when they heard a Coast Guard radio transmission calling for helicopters to help with a rescue mission at the University of New Orleans. Out of radio range with Pensacola, they responded to the call without getting permission from their air operations commander. Soon they were plucking civilians off the roof of a house; then they landed on an apartment building to pick up other stranded people. They ferried to safety others who had gathered on a bridge. During a refueling stop at a Coast Guard station, they called Pensacola and received permission to continue the rescue operations, the Times said. The next morning, though, the Navy air operations chief at Pensacola, Commander Michael Holdener, told them that while rescuing civilians was laudable the lengthy rescue effort was an unacceptable diversion from their main mission, according to the Times. "We all want to be the guys who rescue people," the Times quoted Holdener as saying. "But they were told we have other missions we have to do right now and that is not the priority."
Thanks to Michael Krulik for the heads up on this story.