Maroney Brown Katrina, The smiling little girl who was rescued by an Air Force team during Hurricane Katrina has been found.
According to Air Force Reserve Master Sgt. Mike Maroney, the girl in the picture is 13-year-old La'Shay Brown.
In March, Air Force Times interviewed La'Shay and her family and spoke to Maroney, who 10 years ago said he hoisted the then-3-year-old girl from her New Orleans house into his hovering helicopter and took the family to the New Orleans airport. Brown's family, on the other hand, said they were picked up at the New Orleans convention center and taken to the airport.
On Wednesday, Maroney said he did so many rescues that he may have confused some of the details.
When one of La'Shay's friends from school wrote Maroney's son on Instagram and said, "I think this is the girl who your dad is trying to find," Maroney contacted the family."I'm pretty sure it's her," he said Wednesday. "It feels right."
People Magazine first reported the discovery of the girl who became known by the hashtag #FindKatrinakid.
Maroney had been trying to reconnect with the girl ever since the rescue which occurred Sept. 6, 2005. An iconic photo that has been republished around the world shows the girl hugging Maroney at the airport.
The search for the girl in the photo went viral after Air Force Times posted a story in March about Maroney's effort to reconnect with her. Thousands of Military Times followers on Facebook and Twitter joined in the search to find her.
In March, La'Shay was a seventh grader living in New Orleans, not far from where she and her family were evacuated by the Air Force rescue team.
Her cousin saw the viral photo of toddler La'Shay in the arms of Maroney and contacted Military Times.
In a text message, La'Shay said she doesn't remember the rescue — she was only a toddler at the time — but she does remember being moved to Tennessee where she and her family stayed for two years before returning to New Orleans.And even though she doesn't remember Maroney, she said she would like to meet him.
What would she say to him?
"I was a child then," she said in a text. "But now I realize that he gave me the best thing that ever happened to me by taking me out of that situation. So I would say thank you."
They plan to reunite the weekend of Sept. 19-20.
La'Shay and her mother, aunt and grandmother were rescued by then-Staff Sgt. Maroney, who had arrived seven days earlier in New Orleans.
From that day on, Maroney said he had wondered what happened to the smiling girl in pigtails and initiated an effort to locate her.
After the Katrina rescue mission ended, the photo of the two of them, shot by an Air Force photographer, seemed to show up everywhere: on coinage and paper place mats at the base exchange, on phone cards, and a magazine cover.For many who saw it — a little girl in a pink shirt and pigtails, arms flung around the neck of the pararescueman who'd hoisted her from the flooded ruins of her family's New Orleans home — the image depicted the best of the response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Maroney in March said he remembers the descent between treetops and power lines, a precarious hover the helicopter pilot pulled off with expert precision.
Maroney went headfirst down the hoist, righting himself just before dismounting, hands in the air like a gymnast. He took La'Shay's family members up one by one. The mother cried. The little girl grinned, fearless.
At the time, Maroney was assigned to the 58th Rescue Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
From the helicopter, the little girl excitedly pointed out her home and her school. She reached out to rub her mother's back as the woman cried, Maroney said in March.
Sandra Brown, La'Shay's grandmother, who also was rescued that day, remembered that La'Shay's mother, Shawntrell Brown, was terrified. "She thought the helicopter was going to crash," Sandra Brown said.
Maroney said he remembers La'Shay comforting her mother, saying: "It's OK. ... Don't worry."
When they arrived at the airport, the place where hundreds would be deposited before departing for Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Memphis and beyond, the girl wrapped her arms around Maroney, pressed her cheek against his and smiled.
"If I never do anything else again, that hug and that smile made it all worthwhile," he said then.
According to Air Force Reserve Master Sgt. Mike Maroney, the girl in the picture is 13-year-old La'Shay Brown.
In March, Air Force Times interviewed La'Shay and her family and spoke to Maroney, who 10 years ago said he hoisted the then-3-year-old girl from her New Orleans house into his hovering helicopter and took the family to the New Orleans airport. Brown's family, on the other hand, said they were picked up at the New Orleans convention center and taken to the airport.
On Wednesday, Maroney said he did so many rescues that he may have confused some of the details.
When one of La'Shay's friends from school wrote Maroney's son on Instagram and said, "I think this is the girl who your dad is trying to find," Maroney contacted the family."I'm pretty sure it's her," he said Wednesday. "It feels right."
People Magazine first reported the discovery of the girl who became known by the hashtag #FindKatrinakid.
Maroney had been trying to reconnect with the girl ever since the rescue which occurred Sept. 6, 2005. An iconic photo that has been republished around the world shows the girl hugging Maroney at the airport.
The search for the girl in the photo went viral after Air Force Times posted a story in March about Maroney's effort to reconnect with her. Thousands of Military Times followers on Facebook and Twitter joined in the search to find her.
In March, La'Shay was a seventh grader living in New Orleans, not far from where she and her family were evacuated by the Air Force rescue team.
Her cousin saw the viral photo of toddler La'Shay in the arms of Maroney and contacted Military Times.
In a text message, La'Shay said she doesn't remember the rescue — she was only a toddler at the time — but she does remember being moved to Tennessee where she and her family stayed for two years before returning to New Orleans.And even though she doesn't remember Maroney, she said she would like to meet him.
What would she say to him?
"I was a child then," she said in a text. "But now I realize that he gave me the best thing that ever happened to me by taking me out of that situation. So I would say thank you."
They plan to reunite the weekend of Sept. 19-20.
La'Shay and her mother, aunt and grandmother were rescued by then-Staff Sgt. Maroney, who had arrived seven days earlier in New Orleans.
From that day on, Maroney said he had wondered what happened to the smiling girl in pigtails and initiated an effort to locate her.
After the Katrina rescue mission ended, the photo of the two of them, shot by an Air Force photographer, seemed to show up everywhere: on coinage and paper place mats at the base exchange, on phone cards, and a magazine cover.For many who saw it — a little girl in a pink shirt and pigtails, arms flung around the neck of the pararescueman who'd hoisted her from the flooded ruins of her family's New Orleans home — the image depicted the best of the response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Maroney in March said he remembers the descent between treetops and power lines, a precarious hover the helicopter pilot pulled off with expert precision.
Maroney went headfirst down the hoist, righting himself just before dismounting, hands in the air like a gymnast. He took La'Shay's family members up one by one. The mother cried. The little girl grinned, fearless.
At the time, Maroney was assigned to the 58th Rescue Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
From the helicopter, the little girl excitedly pointed out her home and her school. She reached out to rub her mother's back as the woman cried, Maroney said in March.
Sandra Brown, La'Shay's grandmother, who also was rescued that day, remembered that La'Shay's mother, Shawntrell Brown, was terrified. "She thought the helicopter was going to crash," Sandra Brown said.
Maroney said he remembers La'Shay comforting her mother, saying: "It's OK. ... Don't worry."
When they arrived at the airport, the place where hundreds would be deposited before departing for Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Memphis and beyond, the girl wrapped her arms around Maroney, pressed her cheek against his and smiled.
"If I never do anything else again, that hug and that smile made it all worthwhile," he said then.
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