Semper Paratus

May 25, 2006

Bush honors Coast Guard for Katrina response

By Patricia Kime
Times Staff Writer


President Bush on Thursday conferred a Presidential Unit Citation on the Coast Guard for its valiant response to Hurricane Katrina.

Citing impressive statistics — more than 4,000 Coast Guardsmen worked to save 33,500 people stranded along the Gulf Coast last year — Bush described the relief effort as “one of the finest hours in the Coast Guard’s 216-year history.


“When Americans were at their most desperate, they looked to the skies for help, and they knew their prayers were answered when they saw the rescue choppers from the United States Coast Guard," Bush said.

The PUC, as it's nicknamed, is the highest military honor bestowed to a unit. The citation ribbon has horizontal blue, yellow and red stripes.

The president handed down the honors during the service’s change of command ceremony at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.

Adm. Thad Allen, recognized by most of the country as the man who replaced FEMA Director Michael Brown to lead federal Katrina relief operations, relieved Adm. Thomas Collins as the service’s commandant.

The award is issued for the period between Aug. 29 and Sept. 13, 2005.

Details as to who is eligible to wear it have not yet been released, but it’s likely to include everyone on active duty during the time frame as well as some, if not all, reservists.