With V-for-Victory sign, rescued boys celebrate

MAE SAI, THAILAND — As ecstatic relatives watched ecstatic relatives watched and waved from behind a glass barrier, the 12 boys and their soccer coach rescued from deep within a flooded cave in Thailand made the V-for-Victory sign Wednesday from their beds in a hospital isolation ward where they are recovering from the 18-day ordeal.

An American involved in the operation described the perilous zero-visibility dives that brought the boys out safely as a “once in a lifetime rescue.”

Derek Anderson, a 32-yearold rescue specialist with the U.S. Air Force based in Okinawa, Japan, said that at

times during the risky rescue, the boys had to be put

into harnesses and highlined across the rocky caverns. At other times, they endured dives lasting up to half an hour in the pitchblack waters.

“The world just needs to know that what was accom- plished was a once in a lifetime rescue,” Anderson told

The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday. “We were extremely fortu- nate that the outcome was the way it was. It’s important to realize how complex and how many pieces of this puzzle had to come together.”

He said the boys, ranging in age from 11 to 16, were “incredibly resilient.”

“What was really important was the coach and the boys all came together and discussed staying strong, having the will to live, having the will to survive,” Ander- son said.

That gutsy determination was on display Wednesday in a video taken from the hospital isolation ward. The boys, their faces covered by green surgical masks, flashed the V-for-Victory sign as they sat up in bed and chatted with their nurses, at times responding with the cus- tomary Thai sign of respect — hands pressed together while bowing the head. The youngest boy, 11, appeared to be asleep under a crisp white sheet.

“Don’t need to worry about their physical health and even more so for their mental health,” said Chai- wetch Thanapaisal, director of Chiang Rai Pracha- nukroh Hospital.

“Everyone is strong in mind and heart,” he said at a news conference of offi- cials involved in the rescue.

The four boys and 25-yearold soccer coach who were brought out Tuesday on the final day of the three-day rescue effort have recovered more quickly than the boys rescued on Sunday and Monday, Chaiwetch said.

Even so, all need to be monitored in the hospital for a week and then rest at home for another 30 days, he said. Three have slight lung infections.

In this image made from video and released by the Thailand Government Spokesman Bureau, three of the 12 boys are seen recovering in their hospital beds after being rescued along with their coach from a flooded cave.