The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Aviation Survival Technician First Class Timothy R. Fortney, United States Coast Guard, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight from 30 August to 5 September 2005 in support of Hurricane KATRINA response operations in metropolitan New Orleans. Demonstrating exemplary skill and superlative physical stamina, Petty Officer Fortney served as rescue swimmer aboard HH-60 and HH-65 helicopters for over 27 flight hours in an urban disaster environment. On 30 August, Petty Officer Fortney displayed remarkable agility and creativity freeing two elderly women trapped in their home. At great peril, he suspended himself over the roof’s edge and by swinging the tethered rescue basket he smashed out the window. Continuing to hang upside-down from the roof, he steadied the basket at the window’s edge four feet below to allow the women to climb in. The following day a bed-ridden woman was found trapped in her home due to recent hip-replacement surgery. Knowing that she faced life-threatening infection from the contaminated and potentially toxic water, Petty Officer Fortney physically carried her above his head 25 yards through the chest-deep water to a safe hoisting site. On 3 September, Petty Officer Fortney was delivered to the University of New Orleans where he ventured throughout the neighborhood to gather survivors. He located a good Samaritan operating a skiff and charged him with collecting survivors located beyond his own reach. Spending nearly an hour immersed in the floodwaters, Petty Officer Fortney recovered and delivered eight survivors to the aircraft by hoist. Later that day, he was threaded 150 feet through a network of power lines and trees to an isolated island in an inundated neighborhood to reach a frail 90-year-old couple trapped in their house. After carrying them through the floodwater to the hoisting site, he carefully guided the survivors in the basket through the tangled debris to the helicopter, tending the trail-line with expert precision. Petty Officer Fortney’s actions, skill, and valor were instrumental in saving 93 lives. His courage, judgment and devotion to duty are most heartily commended and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard.