Hurricane Katrina affected many people in many different ways. I chose this
event as something significant in my life because of the profound impact that it had on the
rest of my life. I enlisted in the United States Navy in 2002 as a search and rescue swimmer
and Hurricane Katrina was my first major rescue mission that I had assigned to me. What transpired those next 3 days of my life is something that I will carry with me to my grave. It has shaped me into the man that I am today.
Hurricane Katrina had such a profound affect on my life. At the age of 22 I enlisted in the Navy with aspirations of doing more for my country in lieu of the events that occurred on Sept 11, 2001. I went in with the mind frame of doing something in the Navy, which I could not do in the civilian world. Having said that I enlisted as a search and rescue swimmer not knowing the path in which I was about to embark. My life changing experience began on August 30, 2005.
Hurricane Katrina was the first major rescue mission that I had assigned to me. I was in the process of taking part in a training exercise in Pensacola, Fl when I was put on alert of the events taking place in New Orleans, La. All training exercises were put on hold and my unit was put on high alert ready to move at a moments notice. I remember it like if it were yesterday. I was sleeping in my bunk when my frantic chief walked in as if he had been set a blaze. He barged in filled with an adrenaline rush only seen in movies. He immediately proceeded to tell us that we had an hour to get suited up and that we were about to head out to the U.S.S. Iwo Jima. The Iwo Jima was a steel fortress on the water carrying what seem to be an endless amount of marines as well as sailors, and so began the journey that would forever change my life.
The path in which I was going to embark on was one only comparable to things seen in movies. It was 3 p.m. in the afternoon...