Hurricane Heroics Earn Coast Guard Helicopter Pilots Distinguished Flying Cross

Last week, ahead a Friday trip to Washington, D.C., J.R. Carrillo, a master’s student in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, went to his adviser to flag that fact that he’d be away from campus.

“I thought, given the circumstances, maybe we could work it out,” Carrillo said.

The circumstances, in this case, were these: Carrillo was one of two U.S. Coast Guard pilots in line that day to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross, a medal marking heroism during harrowing rescue operations when he was flying a MH-65D Dolphin helicopter through blinding rain of Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Read more at the Lafayette Journal & Courier

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