Master Sgt. Thomas Davie never thought he'd see a war zone on American soil.
The veteran citizen soldier has nearly seen it all on the battlefront. But nothing prepared him for the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
"It was Dante's 'Inferno,' " Davie said. "It was something I've never seen before, and I've been on several combat tours."
Davie's unit returned to Utah Sunday afternoon after wading through filthy water for 10 days in the blazing New Orleans' sun. In total, 31 Utah servicemen returned Sunday from different assignments throughout New Orleans.
Ten days ago, 15 soldiers from the Utah National Guard's 19th Special Forces Group First Battalion left for New Orleans ready to do whatever was asked. They knew their mission could be grim, as the estimated death toll continued to grow.
Before landing in New Orleans last week, several 19th Special Forces Group soldiers told the Deseret Morning News they feared they would have to help in the recovery effort.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin estimated the death toll could reach 10,000, but as of Sunday night, state and local officials reported 429 deaths.
"We're hoping to save people's lives," Sgt. Holmes, who declined to give his first name, said before leaving for New Orleans. "It's hard to think that people would die in such a traumatic way. But we try to just block it out and do our job."
Save lives they did. The Utah soldiers teamed up with Alabama's 20th Special Forces group to rescue nearly 4,400 people from the flooded Orleans Parish area.
The soldiers mostly traveled by Zodiak boat rescuing stranded survivors.
Davie said he'll never forget rescuing an elderly man who desperately needed the military's help. He was stuck inside his home with literally no way out. The troops found him and put him on a helicopter to safety. "I don't think he would have made it otherwise," Davie said.
The 19th Special Forces Group soldiers used "any tactic we could to get them out of the water zone," Davie said. They worked on the flooded New Orleans streets from 5 a.m. until 7 p.m. to avoid working at night, where it was so dark it was nearly impossible to provide security, said Lt. Col. Angie Abram, task force commander of the Utah troops in Louisiana.
Most of the stranded New Orleans residents suffered from an "incredible lack of information," which likely caused them to make poor decisions, said 1st Lt. Ian Berg, of the 19th Special Forces Group.
Berg said some of the victims he rescued stayed in their homes during and after the storm because they thought essential services like water, power and sewage would be up and running soon.
"What they thought was wrong," Berg said. He used a variety of tactics to coax the residents out of the flood zones. "The people were just so happy to have someone coming out and helping them."
The soldiers worked in extremely filthy and unsanitary conditions throughout their 10-day stay in New Orleans, Davie said. "The water we were in was very polluted," Davie said. "It was really nasty."
The water was so nasty, it contaminated most of the group's water-rescue equipment. The 19th Special Forces Group returned with a relatively light load Sunday afternoon.
All of the water-rescue equipment, including Zodiak boats, kayaks and scuba gear, had to be shipped back to Utah to keep the contaminated equipment away from the troops.
"They wouldn't even allow them on the plane," Abram said. "Everything was so contaminated."
Another 16 airmen from the Utah Air National Guard's 151st Security Forces Squadron returned to the Beehive State Sunday afternoon.
The 151st provided security at a flight hangar at the Naval Air Station New Orleans, where thousands of evacuees were expected to pass through on their way to other states.
But no evacuees ever made it to the air station, Abram said. For security reasons, the military did not want to haul evacuees through the downtown area to the air station, Abram said.
Work was relatively quiet for the airmen. Other than five or six security escorts a day, the airmen stayed put at the air station.
But they did witness the devastation.
"It looked a lot like perhaps a sci-fi movie or a Stephen King novel. Just all the desolation," said Master Sgt. Scott Bradshaw of the Utah Air National Guard's 151st Security Forces Squadron.
Approximately 20 Utah servicemen remain in the Gulf Coast area, said Guard spokesman Maj. Hank McIntire. They include communications specialists and chaplains.
E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com