Naval Air Station Whidbey (NAS) Island Search and Rescue (SAR) Sailors were awarded Air Medals April 14 for their rescue efforts during heavy rain storms, gale-force winds and flooding in Centralia and Chehalis, Wash., Dec. 3-4.

The five Sailors awarded rescued 38 people from their rooftops with MH-60S helicopters, flying the rescued people to a nearby airport and high school football field.

“This is what we train to do,” said Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 1st Class (AW/NAC) Jeremiah Brown, NAS SAR. “So, it’s nice to go out and help people in their time of need.”

The citations state that superior airmanship and leadership were critical to the successful rescues. The Sailors were part of an extraordinary effort to deliver stranded citizens from their roof tops and homes as floodwaters threatened to overtake them, while persevering in the face of extremely low cloud coverage, visibility, gale-force winds, and driving rain. Many of those rescued were critically ill, elderly or physically challenged.

“This was a great mission,” said Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 1st Class (AW/NAC) Lance Tanner, NAS SAR. “If you look back at it, there were a lot of times where someone could have died or we could have crashed, but didn’t, so it doesn’t seem as perilous (now).”

“This was the first call I had at this command, to go down to the floods and pick up as many people as we could,” said Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 2nd Class (AW/NAC) Christopher Wedding, NAS SAR. “I learned a lot doing this. I learned that you would be surprised at where you can land a helicopter.”

They were able to rescue about 10 people at a time before they had to drop people off to go back and save more people.

“I felt lucky to be able to do this mission,” said Aviation Warfare Systems Operator 1st Class (AW/NAC) Chad Lewis, NAS SAR. “This is potentially my last tour in the Navy. So, I was happy to be able to help these people. I’m happy to get the award, but it’s not the award we were looking for. It’s that we are just so happy to go out there and do our job and be able to help people. That’s the biggest reward.”

There are a total of 16 NAS SAR Sailors who have received Air Medals at several different ceremonies for their efforts rescuing more than 90 citizens during the massive flooding.

“The satisfaction of being able to help people is the best reward we could get,” said Lt. Patrick Smith, NAS SAR. “It’s definitely nice to be recognized, but it’s not why we do this.”