How do you define selfless service?
In the summer of 1995, Air Force Captain Scott O’Grady was flying over Bosnia, enforcing the no-fly zone, when a surface-to-air missile slammed into his F-16. He parachuted into enemy territory and for almost a week he evaded Serbian paramilitary forces.Naval Cryptology was there to contribute to the rescue effort.
From the award certificate, “Quickly volunteering to fly in with the rescue team…Petty Officer Coleman kept mission commanders fully appraised of enemy reactions and helped to ensure the safe return of the downed pilot and all 60 personnel participating in the rescue effort.”
Service over self!
CTI1 Gary E. Coleman later retired as a LCDR.
Thank you for your service, LCDR Coleman!
v/r
Chuck
Station HYPO 
16 February 2016 at 14:58
Great stuff – awesome to read cryppie specific contributions! There's still a couple of photos in SSES onboard KSG taken that day, one of which is framed and signed. (Apparently, KSG is the TRAP ship for AF pilots – Libya again in 2011).
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16 February 2016 at 19:28
Thanks for the feedback!
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17 February 2016 at 21:06
When then CTI1 Coleman showed up on Kearsarge, he looked tire but ready to work. We had just arrived on station and he was flown over from another unit without seabag. Needless to say, we were quite surprised to see him.
He's a good man and we were glad to have him as a member of OT division if only for a short time.
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18 February 2016 at 01:32
Thanks, Brian. Now that you mention it, I do recall hearing that story.
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19 July 2025 at 07:15
Why are you requiring us to sign up for some unknown app, unknown at least to me?
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19 July 2025 at 07:30
Just experimenting. What’s your thoughts?
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19 July 2025 at 07:50
If the experiment results in stopping nearly 175 bogus, obviously machine-generated email comments, hitting my in-box, I say let the experiment continue.
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