During Lt. Todd Fisher's first tour as a young helicopter pilot, at Hunter Army Airfield, Ga., he would peer across the tarmac to Coast Guard Air Station Savannah, and notice not only the colorful paint scheme of Coast Guard helicopters but the timing of their deployment.

"Every time we'd be coming back in, because the weather was bad, the Coast Guard guys would be going out," Fisher recalled.

Six years ago, Fisher transferred his skills to the Coast Guard. He never appreciated the move more than this month, after participating in perhaps the greatest sustained rescue operation the service has seen.

Forty-three Coast Guard helicopters from 11 air stations converged on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, to save more than 12,500 lives. Coast Guard small boats and cutters rescued another 11,600 and combined service units evacuated 9,400 patients from hospitals.

Most of the rescues occurred from Aug. 30, the day after Katrina hit, through Sept. 3, when the unprecedented swarm of Coast Guard units was joined by units from other armed forces, as well as federal, state and local law agencies.

By then Fisher, with his co-pilot Lt. Donnis Waters, and rotating teams of enlisted crewmen, had rescued 58 residents of New Orleans, including four infants. If, as officials suggest, Fisher's experience was typical of pilots, then Jeff Lowe's story was typical of Coast Guard rescue swimmers. Within three days, this 26-year-old aviation survival technician had hoisted 25 women, children and men to safety. They were the first lives Lowe had saved since joining the Coast Guard five years ago.

Katrina brought unprecedented devastation to millions but it created a mother lode of opportunity for rescuers to test their training and courage. In contrast to other parts of government, the Coast Guard's performance in Katrina's wake matched its motto of semper paratus, always prepared.

Both Fisher and Lowe are assigned to Air Training Center Mobile, Ala. As Katrina approached, Fisher, an instructor pilot, joined others in flying ATC helicopters to Jacksonville, Fla., out of the storm's path.

On Aug. 31, two days after Katrina hit, Fisher's HH-65C was over New Orleans where broken levees had caused city-wide flooding, stranding thousands atop homes and apartment buildings. "It was absolutely desperate," Fisher said. "We could see people everywhere, waving their arms."

Fisher's crew hovered above a crowd gathering on higher ground near an orange sport utility vehicle, west of the Superdome. His rescue swimmer and flight mechanic began hoisting by basket. Once the aircraft was full, it flew to a highway clover leaf to drop them off and return.

"The most I brought up were six at a time," Fisher said. "Ten people (with crew) on that aircraft is a lot."

Each time the helicopter returned to the orange SUV, the water was higher, finally reaching its windows. Other helicopters arrived and Fisher's crew moved on to begin plucking survivors from roof tops.

For several days, the air rescue effort seemed to be a Coast Guard-only show, one that pilots and crew said they would never forget. "Talking to people who've been in 20 or 30 years," Lowe said, "nobody had seen anything like this."

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