Cave rescue was lesson in humanity
The Thai soccer team’s saga reminds us that we are all united by our compassion and concern for children.
Human beings really do have an amazing capacity to rise to the occasion, don’t they?
To put the daring rescue of the 12 boys and their soccer coach from a cave in Thailand into perspective, consider what columnist Suzanne Moore wrote in the British newspaper The Guardian:
“To be trapped underground as dark water rises is the stuff of nightmares. To enter willingly into these cavities and squeeze through in order to take in food and medicine and finally to free these boys is courageous beyond belief. In the end, oxygen is what mattered, and in taking in oxygen for the boys, one man lost his life, not having left enough for himself. Saman Kunan died trying to save the lives of others. We must not forget him.”
Even the Thai navy SEALs who were involved in the operation were awed by what transpired.
“We are not sure if this is a miracle ... science or what,” they posted on their Facebook page.
In our book, miracles and science aren’t mutually exclusive, so we think both had a major hand in this incredible story — miracles, science and the compassion that compelled brave individuals from around the world to put their lives on the line for these children and their coach.
The vast operation included not just divers but rescue, cave and medical experts, and military members from other countries, including the United States.
Then there were the local rice farmers who agreed to let officials divert water from the cave to their fields, even though it meant the loss of their crops. “Rice can be grown again, but the lives of 13 people cannot be brought back,” the Bangkok Post quoted one farmer as saying.
The 12 boys from the Wild Boars soccer team, ages 11-16, and their 25-year-old coach hiked into the Tham Luang Nang Non cave system June 23 after practice. According to media reports, it wasn’t the first visit to that cave for several of the players.
But they became trapped when unexpected rains flooded the cave. Two British divers found them about a week ago beyond the flooded area, about half a mile below the surface in a chamber 2.5 miles or so from the cave’s mouth.
The diving rescue team — comprising 13 foreign divers and five members of the Thai navy SEALs, according to Reuters — began its first attempt July 8, matching two divers per boy. The boys were equipped with full-face masks, and the divers who accompanied them carried their oxygen tanks.
The first part of the 2.5-mile journey required wading and diving through the flooded passages, according to ABC Australia. Then came a rope-aided 1-mile climb over slippery rock.
Days before the rescue effort’s triumphant end, we learned of the notes the boys and coach had written to their families that were delivered by the divers. In those notes we saw glimpses of mercy, love and humor — and evidence that children around the world have so much in common.
Chanin Wiboonrungrueng, 12, told his mother and father not to worry. “I’m fine,” he wrote. “Please tell Yod to take me out to a fried chicken shop.”
“I’m fine but it’s a little bit cold,” said a letter from Duangpetch Promthep, 13. “Don’t worry and don’t forget my birthday.”
Soccer fans to the core, the boys were reportedly asking about the World Cup while they were trapped in the cave.
FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, sent an invitation to the team to attend the World Cup final Sunday in Russia, although they’ll probably be unable to go as they continue to recuperate.
The saga of the cave rescue reminds us that we are united by compassion and concern for children — whether they’re Thai soccer teammates trapped in a cave or immigrants in the United States separated from their parents.
It also reminds us of how hungry we all are for happy news, for proof that people are essentially caring — that they are good.
“The boys have been freed by bravery, incredible expertise and a word that I am scrabbling for and can now, finally, use: love,” Moore wrote in The Guardian.
Love is exactly the right word. Love of others is why Saman Kunan died in the effort to rescue these boys, and why the other divers kept going despite his death.
In the end, love is what will save us all.