Lieutenant Commander Edward Joseph D'Angelo, United States Navy, was awarded The Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight while serving as pilot, flight leader, and rescue mission commander, in Helicopter Squadron Eleven on 15 September 1999. On Three occasions LCDR D'Angelo flew his HH-60H helicopter more than 100 miles from the USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) into the heart of hurricane Floyd to effect the rescue of eight men whose ship was sunk by the storm, and another who had suffered a broken back on a civilian freighter. Battling fifty knot winds and thirty foot seas, he flawlessly maintained a manual hover in treacherous conditions while hoisting three survivors, adrift in lifejackets, from the deadly seas. After refueling he launched again. With severely reduced visibility due to hurricane squalls, he modified the flights search and coordinated the rescue of five survivors found adrift in a raft by wingman, Dragonslayer 616. On his third Sortie, he then piloted a daring rescue of a freighter crewman with a broken back. Hovering between superstructure obstacles on the pitching deck of the freighter, he lowered a rescue crewman eighty feet onto the ship, then expertly maintained position for forty-five minutes while his crew hoisted the litter-bound victim to safety. By the end of the day, LCDR D'Angelo had flown three Sorties for a total of 7.5 hours in hurricane conditions to effect the rescues of nine people. For his superb airmanship, courage under hazardous conditions, and steadfast devotion to duty, The Chief of Naval Operations personally awarded him The Distinguished Flying Cross.