Air Station Astoria recognizes service A ceremony was held at Air Station Astoria on Tuesday recognizing the five members of a Coast Guard rescue crew. The crew was recognized for rescuing trapped construction workers from a collapsed water tower in Taholah, Wash., in May. “The call came in reporting an accident, the collapse of a massive industrial water tank undergoing maintenance,” said Air Station Astoria Commander, Captain Neal Corbin to troops and family members attending the ceremony. “A concrete roof under the installation of a 40-foot water tank had failed catastrophically, sending four construction workers and tons of twisted metal plummeting into the tank space.” The four construction workers fell 60 feet. Two men were pinned underneath debris, a third lay in hardening concrete with a broken back, while the fourth was mobile. The Coast Guard responded, flying a crew in an MH-60 Jayhawk. Brown and Claridge descended into the tank and provided medical assistance, then helped to hoist the men into the hovering helicopter. “The rescue swimmers navigated the treacherous landscape of twisted metal and hardening cement,” said Corbin. Every moment mattered as the concrete hardened and most of the construction workers were in dire condition. “(It was) a delicate operation that demanded every ounce of their training,” said Corbin. All the construction workers survived. Keely Haussler, partner to Benjamin Brown, said he joined the Coast Guard to help people and that the effort to rescue the men trapped in the collapsed, twisted-metal tank took a heavy emotional toll. Ray and Lesley Brown, parents of Benjamin Brown, traveled from Maine to attend the ceremony. Both said they were in “awe” of their son. “I am proud of him,” said Ray. “I was amazed when I heard about what he and his team did.”.
https://dailyastorian.com/2025/11/19/coast-guard-honors-rescue-crew/
