Page 9 - March ARB Beacon 9-25-15

wwTwfha.caeeebrBootoeekca.hcncoemow/nsT.ecaommM/maarrcchharb September 25, 2015 9

From REUNION page 6 In 2014, help came from a After being dropped off at the FEMA Courtesy photo
Michigan high schooler, An- camp, the Browns were moved to Mem-
roney said. “Words fail to express what drew Goard, who messaged Maroney. phis, Tennessee. They eventually re- Staff Sergeant Michael “Mike” Ma-
the hug means to me.” “He said helping me was his mission turned to New Orleans and have since URQH\WK5HVFXH6TXDGURQ1HOOLV
and he blasted everything on social moved to Waveland, Mississippi. $LU)RUFH%DVH1HYDGDSURYLGHVFDUH
The rescue team eventually deliv- media. I went from a couple hundred to a Hurricane Katrina survivor Sept. 6,
ered Brown and her family safely to the likes to thousands,” Maroney said. “I Finally, they talked about a reunion. LQWKHVNLHVDERYH1HZ2UOHDQV
FEMA camp. Although Maroney and went on every talk show there is, tell- Thanks to the talk show “The Real,” Louisiana. Maroney and his fellow re-
the Browns went their separate ways, ing my story.” Maroney and the Browns were provided servists spent more than a week rescu-
every year around September 6th, Ma- The viral hashtag, #findkatrinagirl, that opportunity. ing survivors from the disaster area.
roney’s mind wonders about that little formed by Goard had started a nation-
girl who had hugged away his burden. wide manhunt. On Sept. 15, 2015, more than 10 “In my line of work you don’t get a
Where was she? How was she doing? “A couple months ago my son got an years after that life-changing hug, lot of happy days, so when you get them
Instagram message from one of Brown’s Maroney and Brown embraced once you grab them and hold onto them for
In 2010, five years after that magic friends. They had moved to Tennessee again. Now 13 years old, Brown is all they’re worth.”
hug, Maroney made the decision to find and she kept the same smile as in the an honor-roll student and plays on
the little girl who saved him. picture,” Maroney said. the basketball team. Maroney contin-
After verifying the young lady he ues his Air Force Reserve career as a
“I always wonder how everyone I found was Brown, his ‘Katrina Girl,’ he master sergeant with the 308th Rescue
drop off is,” he said. said he was dazed and nervous. “I wait- Squadron, 920th Rescue Wing, Pat-
ed a day to text them.” rick Air Force Base, Florida.
The problem was, he didn’t know her When he did finally contact them, he
name, where she went after Katrina, or and Brown’s mother talked about the When not in uniform, Maroney helps
even a photograph of how she would family’s time during Katrina and the fellow veterans transition to civilian life.
look at eight years old, so he turned to years following.
social media hoping to find some help. “When I had pulled them out they Since the reunion, the Maroney and
had gone five days without food,” Ma- Brown families have grown close.
“Every year around the anniversary I roney said.
would post it (the now famous picture) “I keep the picture of us on my wall
asking, ‘Anyone know her?, Anyone for everyone to see,” Maroney said.
recognize her?’” But, no one had seen
‘Katrina Girl,’ the name to which she He and Brown’s mother text each
was referred. other almost every day, sharing jokes,
he added.

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