The search for the smiling little girl who was rescued after Hurricane Katrina continues.

Air Force Times has received an enormous response to the March 30 issue story about the little girl who was rescued 10 years ago. The hashtag #findkatrinakid has been circulated thousands of times on social media. National news organizations have picked up the search — the story has been featured on ABC World News Tonight With David Muir and the TODAY show, USA Today and by a dozen local news organizations.

We still haven't located her.

But we will continue to look for her until we are certain we have the right person.

So keep spreading the word, in hopes that we can reunite former Master Sgt. Michael Maroney with the girl he carried out of the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina.

The girl and six others were rescued by then-Staff Sgt. Maroney on Sept. 7, 2005, in New Orleans.

From that day on, Maroney said he has wondered what happened to the smiling girl in pigtails and initiated an effort to locate her. Air Force Times learned of his quest and ramped up the effort.

When the Katrina rescue mission ended, the photo of the two of them, shot by Air Force photographer Tech. Sgt. Victoria Pierce, seemed to show up everywhere: on coinage and paper placemats at the base exchange, on phone cards and a magazine cover.

For many who saw it — a little girl in a pink shirt and pigtails, arms flung around the neck of the pararescueman who'd hoisted her from the flooded ruins of her family's New Orleans home — the image depicted the best of the response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Send leads on the girl's identity to Richard Sandza at rsandza@militarytimes.com or (703) 750-7439.

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