The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Aviation Survival Technician Second Class Joel M. Sayers, United States Coast Guard, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight from 29 August to 5 September 2005 during Hurricane KATRINA rescue operations. Demonstrating exceptional aeronautical skill and superlative physical stamina Petty Officer Sayer served as a rescue swimmer aboard HH-60 and HH-65 helicopters, flying over 42 hours on day and night search and rescue missions in a hazardous urban disaster environment. On the first HH-60J to arrive in New Orleans, Petty Officer Sayer courageously deployed in high winds to a steeply pitched rooftop, pulling an elderly man from the rapidly rising waters. With the rescue basket sliding down the roof, Petty Officer Sayer improvised by ripping off a vent pipe from the building and using it to stabilize the basket as he maneuvered the survivor into the device. He then direct deployed to a second flooded home reaching a stranded woman whose invalid husband was trapped in the attic and threatened by rising water. Unable to cut through the roof, Petty Officer Sayer departed the scene and commandeered a crash ax from an abandoned fire truck. Returning to the woman’s house, he was the first rescue swimmer to successfully attempt the technique of chopping an access hole through a roof to reach trapped survivors. With relentless determination, Petty Officer Sayer managed to extricate the man, who had no use of his legs, through the hole and hoist him to safety. On August 31st, Petty Officer Sayer saved a family of five from a collapsing carport, leaping across a five foot gap to a stable garage where a rescue could be made. He then eagerly deployed to a three story building surrounded by floodwaters where he cut through a 2 x 10 inch beam using a hacksaw to save two elderly invalids trapped in the lower floors. While rescuing an elderly man on ventilation from an adjacent building, Petty Officer Sayer was assaulted by a violent survivor and struck with a bottle. With the utmost composure, he resisted retaliation, calmed the situation, ultimately rescuing the entire family. Petty Officer Sayer’s actions, aeronautical skill, and valor were instrumental in the rescue of 68 storm victims. His courage, judgment, and devotion to duty are most heartily commended and are in keeping with the highest tradition of the United States Coast Guard.