The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Lieutenant Thomas P. Ostebo, United States Coast Guard, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight on the morning of 30 July 1989. While serving as pilot of Coast Guard HH-3F CGNR 1495, he was engaged in the rescue of five people from an airplane crash on the Chilkat Peninsula near Haines, Alaska. Dispatched from Coast Guard Air Station Sitka, Lieutenant Ostebo piloted CGNR 1495 through mountainous terrain, with severely reduced ceilings and visibility, to the base of a 1,500-foot mountain obscured in clouds. Despite dense fog, heavy rain and only 20 feet of visibility, Lieutenant Ostebo expertly hovered the helicopter up to the 800-foot level of the near vertical mountainside, keeping only the tree tops in sight while homing on radio signals from a civilian helicopter hovering near the crash site. After two attempts to reach the scene while compensating for a malfunctioning attitude indicator and radar, Lieutenant Ostebo located the crash site and established a 125-foot hover among the treetops. Meanwhile, two aircrew members were lowered through the dense trees to remove the survivors from the aircraft wreckage. Lieutenant Ostebo hovered above the scene in dense fog for 2 hours while nine demanding hoists were completed, despite repeated difficulties with the rescue basket becoming entangled in the trees. After the survivors were safely onboard, Lieutenant Ostebo conducted an instrument takeoff into the thick clouds while surrounded by 6,000-foot mountains. Once clear of the terrain, he descended below the cloud cover to visual conditions. After quickly refueling in Haines, Alaska, Lieutenant Ostebo flew CGNR 1495 to Juneau where the survivors were transferred to awaiting ambulances. Lieutenant Ostebo’s actions, aeronautical skill and valor were instrumental in the rescue of five critically injured victims. 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.