as we observe this change in command, it is a great moment not just for the coast guard, but for our entire nation. the coast guard record is unsurpassed anywhere in the world from the courage of your heroes, who man the landing craft in the south pacific, to the legendary prowess of your pilots to the astonishing feats of your rescue swimmers. your service makes all of america proud. we re proud of the coast guard. more so today, i will tell you, more so today than ever before. [applause]
the flooding or the direness that the word is out there s no water, hopefully that will be the local officials working hard on that. our rescue swimmers encountered, tragically, unfortunately folks where they are beyond, their life expired, to people that the immediate si is not as extreme. it s a whole continuum of situations there. and you are and your coast guard are very experienced in rescues of so many different calibers. given that this is particularly unique, does this take an emotional toll on you and those who serve? caller: i tell you, i think that s a great observation. we have chaplins down here that talk to crews when they get back. folks are tired. it is my job and the local regional commanders to make sure our folks get a hot meal, a few hours of rest. the coast guard has been like
air traffic in the air. at one point, we saw i saw five other choppers outside of our window. you would hear often overcom company traffic, company traffic, that means there s traffic from their company, other military aircraft in the area. but we were the closest when this call came in and we headed straight towards it. it s hard for me to identical specifically on a map. what are the challenges that these helicopter rescue missions face is that sometimes their given addresses, sometimes longitude from the area. i m listening on mycomes, the rescue swimmers right now describing what they see. they have knocked on the door of a home, haven t found anybody inside. but they re experiencing the difficulty i was just telling you about in which they re given an address and from the air of course it s so hard to identify specifically which home that may be. i heard one of the guys typing in an address on google maps
service, when they knocked on doors, people were no longer in distress. with better weather and visibility, more boats in the water in port arthur. the boats able to get to people quicker than the helicopters could. in talking with one of those rescue swimmers, it was interesting to hear them tell me so much of the challenge for this mission is you have so many calls for help coming in and so many assets in the air and in the water, trying to help. so, the cooperation and the coordination of everybody here from a lodgist cal stand poubt is a challenge. just looking at images of seeing children, families, people clinging to their pets, elderly, all of that, in these baskets. it is heart wrenching. they are doing superb work. caylee, thank you so much. for ways you can help those affected by hurricane harvey, go to cnn.com/impact.
but this is the first time while we ve been on board to go down. on these rescue missions, they re trying so hard to ensure they re getting to the people who are in the most dire need to help people in uncomfortable situations. but these rescuers are in life threatening conditions. speaking with one of the rescue swimmers who s now on the ground assessing this situation, said he rescued four people yesterday, and then he pulled out pictures on his phone of those people surviving this storm on this helicopter with him. but to see that sort of human emotion out of him, taking photos with those people, moments after he changed what