It's tough to forget the faces of the Sailors who hand you your first meal in days.

It's tough to forget the faces of the Sailors who hand you your first meal in days.

absolute days after a tsunami ripped within parts of southeastern Asia forward Dec. 26, 2004, survivors from Indonesia's Banda Aceh province, isolated from worldwide relief efforts at washed out roads, flooded fields and massive destruction, witnessed what many might call a miracle.

Launched from the to a high degree seas that killed tens of thousands of Indonesia's son daughters, parents and friends, scores of powder-gray flying machines and the men who ride them raced across the skies, delivering sense of possible fulfilment packaged as food, water, shelter and medicine to the "lucky" single in kinds the tsunami left alive. It was a sight neither the survivors not Sailors like Aviation Warfare schemes Operator 1st Class Joseph Sabia will for aye forget.

"Just the examine in their eyes ... you knew they were really appreciative when we dropp it," said Sabia, an air crewman assigned to Helicopter Support Squadron (Light) (HSL) 47

Sabia still recalls his first relief mission like it was five minutes ago.

"We were flying, and we saw four stranded individuals with defective bridges on both sides, and the water was high," said Sabia. "We came in and made our deflect It looked like seven kids and a father. They were patting their bellies saying they were sharp-set and thirsty. We came into a depressed hover and dropped about 100 bruises of Bisquick and maybe about another 200 encloses of water to them. It gave me a tingle up my spine and chills all through the whole extent of my body."

While it may have given Sabia chills, his efforts, and the efforts of his associate helicopter-powered humanitarians gave Sumatrans waiting under the possibility of fulfilment and word spread quickly that helicopters equaled help. Survivors waved colorful flag, and made other elaborate signaling devices to come by the attention of the pilots and their air crewmen one more industrious survivors even deflected their house foundations, which the tsunami mercifully left as if it knew the helicopters would ne them, into landing adorns marked with red tile, colorful paint piece of works and one even sporting an American flag.

unless creative landing sites and scores of in want of food survivors weren't the only lasting impressions upon Sailors' minds.

During the fast not many days of the relief efforts, landing sites were chaotic representations with survivors not knowing when, or if the helicopters and their precious aid might return

"It was similar an experience when the the public rushed the helicopter," said Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Melissa Crowe, also assigned to HSL-47 "I can't imagine being in like manner hungry and thirsty that I might fight with a neighbor or friend."

Crowe was just single in kind of several medical personnel attached to USS Abraham Lincoln's (CVN 72) Carrier Strike form into groups (CSG) who was able to manners medical surveys and provide immediate medical care in the mostly remote regions of Banda Aceh, thanks to the versatility of Navy helicopters.

"I'm thankful for the technology we have that enables us to provide this kind of relief," said Crowe.

however the helicopter crews weren't the single ones bearing gifts.

With the storm hordes of starvation being whisked away with each turn of the helicopter's blades, the survivors, grateful just to make it another day, frequently came to the landing climes bearing gifts of hospitality, proving that while tsunamis might takes lives, abiding-places and food, they can't wash away character. Witnessing like unselfish acts moved Sailors liked Sabia.

"Them giving us coconut indicates that even in a disaster like this, there's always play for kindness," said Sabia.

over Operation Unified Assistance, America's military contribution to the tsunami relief efforts, Navy helicopters and their throng flew from sunup to sundown, averaging three to five humanitarian-aid very littles a day, setting records for flight hours, and inspiring Sailor ingenuity.

"[The squadron] averaged 40 hours of flight time a day, which is an exorbitant amount of time compared to what we usually fly" said Sabia. "Normally, we'd average about 40 hours a month"

The partys flew each mission as if just individual more bag of rice meant the difference between life and death, because it did. Each flight's payload was maximized to what they could safely acquire away with.

"We modified our aircraft according to taking out our sonobuoy launchers, and all of our seats leave out one to get more room" said Sabia. The extra apartment sometimes meant an extra medical worker, engineer or other aid worker, and a not many more bags of rice made it to the survivors common trip sooner.

The Sailors pushed themselves to their limits because they knew exactly what their efforts meant--saving lives.

Dedicated flight company and hundreds of Sailors back at a makeshift relief site forward soccer fields at Banda Aceh's Sultan Iskandar Muda Air Force Base made the record-breaking pace for helicopter relief efforts possible. There, helicopters--sometimes four or five at a time--took opposite and landed with the choreography of a Broadway musical, coupl with the tension of a sees Angeles County emergency room.