Lt. Cassandra Sanders, Preoperative Nurse, USNS Comfort

I was going out to help the Salvation Army with the Katrina recovery efforts, and we were driving by the houses along the water. I saw how devastated the houses were. Some were just washed away — they had been brick houses, beautiful homes.

You could see some of the residents salvaging every little memory they had. I saw pictures and photo albums in the front yards. I saw flags in the front yard. I saw big signs with different Bible scriptures. They had not lost hope. They’re still alive and they still have joy for life.

What really touched my heart was going by one of the houses, and a gentleman who looked to be maybe in his 70s was out in the yard, pushing a wheelbarrow, just trying to salvage what he could from his house. To see the memories people were trying to salvage really touched me.

It’s amazing how fast and quickly a disaster can strike. I’m just dealing with it based on my belief in God, my spirit and the faith that I have. I pray for everyone, whether I know them or not. If I had been living in this area, I would have been one of them. Now, I’m just here to help.

I first joined the Navy to pursue my education in the nursing field because, growing up, I couldn’t afford to go to college. My aunt is a retired Army nurse, and being around her is what drew me to nursing. Since the eighth grade, I wanted to be a nurse.

I’ve been a nurse for five years, and I’ve been in the Navy a total of 19 years. I was a cryptologist before I became a nurse, but I changed to nursing because that’s always what I wanted to do.

The most rewarding thing as a nurse is helping people, working with people and being able to share people’s stories.

This is my first mass rescue effort. This hasn’t affected my perspective of service at all. This is what I do. I take care of people, and I’m just basically doing my normal job aboard a ship. The only negative effect is that I’m away from my family — my son and my husband. That’s the thing that I’m missing.

Last year, I was working in an intensive care unit, and I was taking care of a young Marine who was injured in Iraq. When I assumed responsibility as his nurse, he couldn’t do anything. He basically had no responses because of the amount of brain injury that he had incurred. I met his family and we would pray together.

As his nurse, I escorted him when he left the intensive care unit for the Veteran’s Brain Rehabilitation Hospital in Tampa, Fla. He still needed to be monitored. After leaving the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., I was told that, based on the extent of his injuries, it would probably be a year before he would even move.

In three weeks, my husband called me at the hospital and said, “the young man you took to Tampa is on CNN and he’s now talking.” So that was a blessing to me, my heart, and gave me more faith knowing that prayer works. I called the hospital, and although he was talking in an infant-style manner, like a child, I was able to talk to him on the phone.

There are many stories like that from the Marines that I’ve taken care of. That one really touched me.