Preamble:

The Victor Roulund Meritorious On-Scene Performance Award recognizes quick-thinking individuals within U.S. Coast Guard Aviation, who have taken risks and improvised in extraordinary circumstances, with the intent to save lives. The Victor Roulund Award is co-sponsored by Mr. Roy Vander Putten, and the Coast Guard Aviation Association. This award is named in honor of AD2 Victor Roulund, USCG, who, on 24 December 1955, was part of the augmented crew of an HO4S (a variant of the Sikorsky H-19) helicopter, deployed to Marysville, in Northern California. PO Roulund’s crew faced daunting weather and rescue challenges in the vicinity of the Yuba River, where countless people were seriously stricken in sudden, extreme flooding conditions. Within a 12-hour span, PO2 Roulund and his three fellow crewmembers, rotated in and out, hoisting a total of 138 people.  The second Roulund Award recipient is Alda Siebrands.

Citation:

“Just before noon, on 5 March 1994, LT Alda Siebrands, aircraft commander of the MH-65A CG6503, sized-up her 3-person crew’s uncommon challenge. A weak, likely hypothermic, 73-yr-old man was on the water’s surface, clinging to the rescue basket below her helicopter. Time was running out and the CG6503 lacked a rescue swimmer on board. The survivor’s continued exposure to 45 deg water and battering seas could quickly lead to his unconsciousness, and it became clear that the crew of the 6503 was this person’s last chance. Passing the control of the aircraft to her copilot, LT Siebrands left the helicopter, entered the salt water of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and despite great difficulties, placed the survivor and herself into the basket. Once delivered to a sandbar, LT Siebrands determined that the survivor had no vital signs. She and the helicopter’s flight mechanic conducted CPR for nearly 25 minutes until an EMS crew arrived. Once the EMS crew defibrillated the patient, he started breathing on his own. Like PO Victor Roulund in 1955, LT Alda Siebrands’ efforts as the survivor’s “one last hope” place her among the other excellent, quick-thinking Coast Guard performers who improvised in extraordinary circumstances, operated well outside of what was routinely regarded as normal “crew duties,” and took personal risks to save a life.”