 August 2005. The multi-purpose amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima is preparing to set sail from her home port of Norfolk, Virginia for an engineering inspection. Tropical Depression 12 grows in strength in the Caribbean. It's renamed Katrina. By month's end, Iwo will join her sister ships Truman, Baton, Shreveport, Tortuga, Whidbey Island, Swift, and countless DoD assets in one of the largest relief and recovery efforts in U.S. history. The vast majority of New Orleans, Louisiana is underwater. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses are beyond repair. We are dealing with one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history. We did as President Bush had asked, find your role and do your part. And so in many cases, the crew didn't need to be asked. They saw the need and then they stepped up, had a recommendation for doing it, and then we said, biomes, go do it. Before midnight, we had army teams, marines, air force, all sorts of federal agencies asking to come on board and berth on Iwo Jima. And of course, it was wide open. We've got a huge flight deck as well as a huge well deck. We've been running flight operations on this deck, pier side, for almost 15 hours a day for the past two to three days. If we're not putting combat marines on the beach, we can be putting humanitarian relief on the beach. The unique thing about this particular hurricane, as large as it was, is that this strip of carnage like this, you know, exists for 150 miles, you know, from Alabama to New Orleans, a quarter mile in, you see this kind of stuff. Everything that they're doing here, whether they're feeding national guards on the mess deck, or making fresh water, or maintaining the air conditioning to keep these folks cool, or maintaining the command and control of the ship, or running the flight deck nearly 24 hours a day. All of them are contributing directly to this effort. The Navy did exactly what we want our Navy to do. They provide the initial support, whether you're flying helos off of big deck amphibious ships, to provide life saving, and then to start funneling supplies ashore to get fresh water, medical supplies, food to the disadvantage. With temperatures nearing triple digits, and a humidity to match, welcome to a typical August day along the Gulf Coast. Ten years have gone by, and life in the big easy seems to have returned to normal. The tourists are back. The streets are alive with sights and culture that bring in visitors from all around the world. If you look closely, however, in places like the Lower Ninth Ward, St. Bernard's Parish, and along Highway 90, some of the scars left by Katrina just won't heal. The storm that brought a region to its knees was answered by a Navy that helped bring it to its feet. Years from now, when they're old and gray, they'll look back at this, and they'll just be so proud of the fact that they were here to make this contribution.