Special Episode: Remembering Katrina with Sara Faulkner - AST1 (Ret.) - Helicopter Rescue Swimmer

They Had to Go Out

On this 14th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall along the Gulf Coast, we talk with Aviation Survival Technician Sara Faulkner (Ret), the first woman to graduate from the Coast Guard’s own Rescue Swimmer School, about the immediate response of Coast Guard aircrews to what has become known as “The Super Bowl of SAR.” She tells of the sights and smells of a flooded major city, rescuing a newborn in mid air after the mother hands the baby to her from a hi-rise balcony, and the mass rescues performed non-stop in the days after the hurricane. Sara also tells some of the more dramatic tales of her twenty years of service, including her first SAR case as a member of a motor lifeboat crew and a near death experience in the Bahamas. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theyhadtogoout/support