EMOTIONAL REUNION

He saved her during Hurricane Katrina. Reunited more than a decade later, she takes him to her Junior ROTC ball

The touching story of a teen’s reunion with the Air Force vet who saved her life nearly 12 years earlier

It was a no-brainer. When 14-year-old Lashay Brown found out her school was holding a ball for members of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) on March 18, she knew the perfect person to ask to be her date: Master Sgt. Mike Maroney, the U.S. Air Force vet who had saved her life during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans nearly 12 years earlier. “I asked him to take me,” Lashay tells In Touch, “because he’s my hero.”

Her extra-special escort made the evening unforgettable. Lashay and Mike entered the Lower Bay Community Center near her home in Waveland, Miss., through an archway of drawn sabers. The theme of the night was, appropriately enough, Mardi Gras. “It couldn’t have been more perfect,” says Lashay. Adds Mike, 42, “Neither of us really likes to dance, so we spent a lot of quality time just talking and catching up.”

There was certainly plenty to discuss. On Sept. 6, 2005, Mike, then an Air Force pararescuer, swooped in to transport Lashay and her family of seven from their submerged home to dry land. “They hadn’t had any food or water for a few days, and their house was destroyed,” recalls Mike, a single dad of two teenage sons who lives in San Antonio and works as a civilian pararescue instructor. After helicoptering them to safety, he was rewarded with a huge hug from the grateful 3-year-old. The image (far left) of their beaming faces went viral.

They wouldn’t see each other again until 2015. Mike ultimately tracked LaShay down via a social media campaign dubbed # findkatrinagirl. Throughout nine subsequent deployments, including punishing tours of duty in Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa, he had carried a copy of the emotional image with him. “I could always look at that smile,” says Mike, “and no matter what I was going through, it kept me going forward.” They remained in touch with weekly phone calls and several visits.

At the JROTC ball, Mike let Lashay know the impact their shared experience has had on him. “I gave a speech about what she did for me that day, and how badly I needed a hug,” he says of Lashay, who’s planning to pursue a military career of her own. “I got to tell her that she rescued me more than I rescued her.”

— Reporting by John Blosser

POIGNANT PICTURE This photo of pararescuer Mike and 3-year-old Lashay, taken shortly after he rescued her during Hurricane Katrina, became an iconic image.

BEST DATE EVER “He means a lot to me,” Lashay tells In Touch of Mike (on the big night).

Following his nearly 10-year search for her, Mike and Lashay were reunited in 2015 on the TV show The Real. “I wanted to tell her how important her hug was to me,” he says.