The storm had cut off electricity and water to the center. The two pilots delivered the supplies and were heading back to Pensacola when they picked up a Coast Guard transmission saying helicopters were needed in New Orleans, the New York Times reports.

So the pilots headed for the stricken city and began picking up people who were stranded on rooftops and a highway overpass and ferrying them to an airport where a makeshift medical center had been set up. They rescued 110 people in all.

But the next morning, the two pilots were called to a meeting with Cmdr. Michael Holdener, Pensacola’s air operations chief. He said their rescue effort was "an unacceptable diversion” from their mission of delivering supplies, according to the Times – even though Lt. Udkow said there was a "shocking” lack of other rescue helicopters around flooded New Orleans.

Udkow, who reportedly complained to superiors about the reprimand, was taken out of flying rotation and given a new assignment: overseeing a temporary kennel set up at Pensacola to hold pets of service members evacuated from hurricane-stricken areas.

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