"Katrina Girl" Reunited With Airman Who Rescued Her, Now Taking Him To Junior ROTC Ball

Hurricane Katrina may have happened a dozen years ago, but that doesn’t mean that the stories of those who survived it and their rescuers don’t go on and on. 

Most of our memories of that disaster involve crowds of stranded people and homes drowned by rushing water. But there were also small moments of joy to be found, like a photograph that went viral in the weeks after the flood. It showed a small girl hugging the U.S. airman that just saved her family.

Mike Maroney has retired, but during Katrina the vet was with an Air Force Pararescue unit, rescuing those still trapped in their homes.

One family was that of the “Katrina Girl,” who had been waiting more than a week for aid by the time his team arrived to pull them up and away to safety. A photo taken of the girl hugging Maroney became a familiar sight in the months after. 

In 2015, 10 years after the rescue, Maroney took to the media to ask for help to identify and reunite with the girl.

“I would love to get another hug and see how she’s doing,” he told The Washington Post at the time, “I’d love her to know that there isn’t a day I haven’t thought of her.” There was even a Twitter hashtag #FindKatrinaKid to help with the search.

It worked! In late September 2015, the pair were reunited on the set of The Real. “Katrina Girl’s” name is LeShay Brown.

The show also presented both families with checks for $10,000. Maroney and Brown have stayed in touch since, and now she’s enrolled in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps or (JROTC). The pre-training program is held at Bay High School in Waveland, Mississippi, and sponsored by the United States Armed Forces.

So when the time came for 14-year-old Brown to find a date to the JROTC ball, who did she invite? Maroney, of course.

Though she hasn’t decided which branch yet, Brown plans to join the military someday. Maroney supports her choice. “I am proud of her no matter what she does and will support her in everything she does,” he said. 

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