When Category 4 Hurricane Harvey devastated coastal Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, the US Coast Guard was there to assist in the rescue. Harvey was the wettest tropical cyclone on record in the United States and is tied as the most destructive. The hurricane’s floods inundated hundreds of thousands of homes, displaced more than 30,000 people and prompted more than 17,000 rescues.

Last week in Mobile the Coast Guard awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses and one Air Medial to four of the heroes of rescues in Hurricane Harvey.  The Distinguished Flying Crosses were presented to Cmdr. Scott Sanborn, Lt. John Briggs, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Tyler Gantt. Petty Officer 1st Class James Yockey was awarded the Air Medal.

The Distinguished Flying Cross is America’s oldest military aviation award, awarded for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight. The Air Medal is awarded for heroism or exceptional meritorious achievement. 

Petty Officer 3rd Class Tyler Gantt, a Coast Guard aviation survival technician, or rescue swimmer, was the first rescue swimmer deployed in the storm. It was also his first deployment as a rescue swimmer. Launched at night in winds gusting to 80 knots with visibility below 50 feet, Gantt was lowered through a small opening between active power lines to search for a critically ill pregnant woman trapped by rising waters in her attic. Gantt successful swam the woman and her family, one by one, through the floodwaters, to be hoisted through 125-foot trees and power lines. 

In a subsequent hoist, Gantt dove from the roof into the swift-moving water to grab an infant who was swept away from his father. Gantt then located additional survivors from a home being engulfed by the floodwaters.  Without the use of a chainsaw, he tore through the roof to rescue seven people before they were overtaken by the water. Ultimately, Petty Officer Gantt is credited with the rescues of 59 people. 

Lt. John Briggs, an aircraft commander on Gantt’s helicopter during those rescues, is credited with helping to save 120 people. Facing life-threatening weather when trying to reach the pregnant woman trapped in her attic, the crew “endured multiple aircraft emergencies during the rescue of additional family members,” his Distinguished Flying Cross citation states.

“The combination of losing critical avionics, communication failures, the loss of aircraft stabilization systems, and the violent motion of the aircraft due to unprecedented [92 mph] winds made maintaining a hover an aeronautical feat,” it adds.

Cmdr. Scott Sanborn is credited with saving two dozen people — including his own comrades. He flew a degraded Coast Guard MH-65 “between numerous severe thunderstorm bands to rescue three aircrew surrounded by floodwaters on an elevated helipad.” He saved another stranded rescue swimmer by hovering in a flooded parking lot.

“Due to the waist-deep water, he precisely positioned the aircraft at the water’s surface to prevent the loss of the aircraft while onloading aircrew. In the following days, Commander Sanborn flew 14 hours of rescue operations in ceilings as low as 100 feet with one-quarter mile of visibility, navigating between towers and over high-voltage power lines to rescue citizens in distress.”

Petty Officer James Yockey, an aviation electrical technician second class, helped rescue 27 people. The flight mechanic once helped guide a rescue swimmer by voice after the aircraft malfunctioned and lost internal communications. 

Yockey guided the swimmer, who reached a disabled woman trapped in her apartment with floodwaters up to her neck, “through live wires and light poles, with the knowledge that the slightest error could jeopardize the summer and survivor’s lives.”

Other times, he guided a rescue basket and swimmer through live power lines and other debris to reach 16 people. Yockey then “guided the aircraft to land in an intersection, surrounded by traffic lights, vehicles and power lines, to reach an elderly diabetic patient in need of emergency dialysis.”

The term hero is often overused. It certainly applies to these Coast Guardsmen.