Out of the Storm: The Coast Guard's Greatest Rescues by Air (Illustrated Ebook)

January 3, 1944. A nor'easter has grounded every airplane in New York, survivors of an exploded destroyer need blood plasma, and one Coast Guard pilot walks out to a machine with no wings.

A 25-page illustrated history of four real Coast Guard rescues by air, each told on its own:

- 1944: Frank Erickson's plasma flight through a snowstorm to Sandy Hook, which the National Coast Guard Museum calls the first helicopter rescue mission in history

- 1946: the Sabena airliner crash near Gander, Newfoundland, and the 40 helicopter flights that brought the survivors out of the bog

- 1980: the burning cruise ship Prinsendam in the Gulf of Alaska, more than 500 saved and no lives lost

- 2005: Hurricane Katrina's first days, and the 12,535 people saved by Coast Guard helicopters

Includes 20 archival U.S. government photographs (Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force, NASA/NACA, NOAA and FEMA), a "by the numbers" page, a timeline, a "where the sources disagree" page, and a full list of sources.

Pairs with Sortie Stories Episode 4 on YouTube.

Format: PDF, 7x10 in, 25 pages, about 5.8 MB.

How it was made: the text was drafted with AI assistance, then fact-checked against the U.S. Coast Guard Historian's Office, the National Coast Guard Museum, the 1946 Coast Guard Headquarters report and Lt. August Kleisch's official report, NOAA Ocean Exploration, GAO-06-903, Defense Media Network and FactCheck.org. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it in the next edition (free update).

Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of Homeland Security or the Department of War (Department of Defense). Logbook Press is an independent history imprint. Photos are U.S. government public-domain works.