U.S. Coast Guard Honors Work Boat Crew For Oil Rig Rescue

Posted in Deepwater Horizon,Gulf Coast,Louisiana Maritime News,US Coast Guard (USCG) on April 18, 2011

BELLE CHASSE, LA – The U.S. Coast Guard held an awards ceremony in honor of the work boat crew who rescued the survivors of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire in 2010.

U.S. Coast Guard wards ceremony honoring crew members of the Damon B. Bankston on Friday, April 15, 2011. Photo credit: Paul Purpura, The Times-Picayune

The awards ceremony was held on Friday, April 15, 2010 at the Coast Guard Air Station in Belle Chasse, LA.

Belle Chasse is located in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana in the southeastern corner of the state on the Gulf of Mexico, about 12 miles southeast of New Orleans.

At the awards ceremony, the crew of the Offshore Supply Vessel Damon B. Bankston were honored for their “heroic and immediate response” to the disaster. As a result of the crew’s efforts, 115 lives were saved.

The story was reported at Nola.com:

As the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon explosion approaches, the U.S. Coast Guard this morning will present several awards to military and civilian rescue crews for “heroic search and rescue efforts” in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

Awards will be presented to the crew of the Offshore Supply Vessel Damon B. Bankston, the Eighth Coast Guard District and the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala., during a ceremony at Coast Guard Air Station New Orleans in Belle Chasse.

According to a news release from the U.S. Coast Guard, the crew was to be honored for the “courage, selflessness, poise and preparedness of the OSV and Coast Guard helicopter crews that were vital in the rescue of 115 individuals from the burning platform, and were instrumental in the prevention of further loss of life from the tragic event.”

Alwin Landry, the Skipper of the Damon B. Bankston received a certificate of valor for his “heroic action” during the initial response to the explosion.

The crew members were each given distinguished public service awards for their “exceptional public service while responding to the explosion and fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and subsequent evacuation.”