The rescuers
Date: 21 July 2002
WHO could ever forget the horrific Mozambique floods of February 2000? Certainly not Pretoria-based Brigadier-General John Church, one of the SA Air Force helicopter pilots who flew thousands of hours rescuing more than 14000 stranded people most famously a mother and child stuck in a tree.
Church remembers the disaster because of the sterling work done by his air force comrades and because of the honours heaped upon them by an admiring world. The air force was honoured by the US Coast Guard as well as by the USs National Association for Search and Rescue. Church was among a small delegation that travelled to Charlotte, North Carolina, to receive the associations highest honour. At three separate functions we attended we got standing ovations, Church remembers.
Sunday Times
