The Coast Guard Foundation Hosts Guardian Of The Heartland Awards Dinner In New Orleans

Tribute to the Coast Guard’s Eighth District Honors Coast Guard Heroes

Stonington, Conn. – The Coast Guard Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to the education, welfare and morale of all Coast Guard members and their families, announced today that its Annual Tribute to the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Eighth District, The Guardian of the Heartland Dinner, will take place on Friday, April 15, 2011. The event will honor several aircrews from Air Station New Orleans, and Aviation Training Center Mobile for their actions during the explosion and fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon on April 20, 2010.

Coast Guard efforts included evacuating the most critically injured rig workers from the Damon Bankston, a Good Samaritan vessel that was nearby when the explosion first occurred, to hospitals and medical facilities where members treated survivors with compound fractures, lacerations, and second and third degree burns.

The Eighth Coast Guard District, headquartered in New Orleans, spans 26 states throughout the Gulf Coast and the heartland of America from the Appalachian Mountains and Chattahoochee River in the East, to the Rocky Mountains in the West, the US/Mexican border and the Gulf of Mexico in the South, and the North Dakota/Canadian border in the North.

Co-chairing the Eighth District gala are local business leaders, Donald T. “Boysie” Bollinger of Bollinger Shipyards, and Otto Candies, chairman and CEO of Otto Candies, LLC. Also scheduled to be in attendance to honor the Coast Guard members from New Orleans and Mobile will be VADM Sally Brice-O’Hara, Vice-Commandant; VADM Robert Parker, Atlantic Area Commander; and RADM Mary Landry, District 8 Commander.
 

Source: www.coastguardfoundation.org