The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Lieutenant Commander Jacob E. Brown, United States Coast Guard, for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight from 30 August 2005 through 5 September 2005 as an Aircraft Commander aboard Coast Guard HH-65B helicopters during Hurricane KATRINA rescue operations. Lieutenant Commander Brown flew 22 hours of arduous day and night rescue missions in an urban disaster environment. On the night of 31 August 2005, Lieutenant Commander Brown rescued 10 survivors clinging desperately to a heavily damaged rooftop surrounded by torrential storm surge floodwaters. Despite aircraft power limitations and total darkness, Lieutenant Commander Brown repeatedly maneuvered his aircraft in the only possible position to make the rescue, hovering 75 feet above the roof, yet just a few feet below dangling power lines. On 1 September 2005, Lieutenant Commander Brown saved 53 survivors trapped without food or water on a warehouse roof. Operating at the absolute limits of the HH-65, with exacting skill, Lieutenant Commander Brown flew repeated sorties from the roof, requiring him to maneuver the aircraft through a maze of obstacles blocking both the arrival and departure paths. Later that day, while conducting a MEDEVAC from Baptist Hospital, Lieutenant Commander Brown guaranteed safe aircraft clearances as his co-pilot re-positioned the helicopter backwards between buildings and towers, to recover a stranded doctor from an adjacent roof 100 feet below. On the night of 03 September 2005, utilizing night vision goggles, he located 20 survivors clinging to the rooftop of a flooded school bus. Lieutenant Commander Brown hoisted the first three survivors, hovering above wires with rotor blades only feet from a billboard, while the cockpit of his HH-65 filled with smoke and ash from a nearby fire. During the third recovery, his aircraft experienced a total hoist failure. With survivors hanging beneath the aircraft, he navigated six miles through reduced visibility and unlit towers to deliver them to safety. Lieutenant Commander Brown’s actions, aeronautical skill and valor were instrumental in saving 78 lives. His courage, judgment and devotion to duty are most heartily commended and are in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Coast Guard.