2LT National News
Miracle in Thailand as missing football team located alive
Jul 4, 2018
MAE SAI, Thailand – In a miraculous development in remote northern Thailand, twelve missing schoolboy football players and their coach have been found safe and well, after being missing for nine days.
The boys, aged 11 to sixteen, all players in the Wild Boar soccer team, and their 25-year old coach disappeared on Saturday June 23rd 2018 after becoming trapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave where they had gone to seek shelter from extensive flooding.
There has been a huge outpouring of support from across Thailand for the missing boys and their coach, their families, and the band of more than 1,000 rescuers.
A massive military operation involving the Royal Thai army and Navy Seals, the United States, Japanese, Chinese and Australian military forces, rescue teams from the United Kingdom, Myanmar and Laos, and the Australian Federal Police, had been underway since the boys’ disappearance. Rescue teams scoured mountains while Navy Seals conducted evacuation and medical drills, with Navy divers pushing deeper into the Tham Luang cave.
Late on Monday night the extensive search, and prayers of a nation, paid off. “I confirm they are all safe, the Governor of Chiang Rai, Narongsak Osottanakorn said on Monday night.
The part of the cave where the boys were believed to have been, known as ‘Pattaya Beach,’ was flooded. It was only when Royal Thai Navy Seals pushed on a further 400 to 400 meters that the boys and their coach were found.
The Thai Navy Facebok page posted a video of searchers coming across the boys. Lighting up their faces with torches, a diver asked the group in English, “How many of you?”
There was silence, then a faint voice cried back, “Thirteen.”
The diver responded, “Thirteen, brilliant.”
“We are coming, it is ok, we are coming,” the diver told the team and coach. “We are the first, the first of many, many are coming.”
“You are very strong, very strong,” the member of the rescue team added.
There was major jubilation and tears of joy as families and friends of the missing team, living in a temporary tent structure at the rescue site, were told the news.
Now the boys and their coach have been found, the next major stage of the rescue operation will be to extract them from the cave.
“When the medics have evaluated the kids to see if their health is in good condition, we will care for them until they have enough strength to move by themselves, and then we will evaluate the situation on bringing them out again later,” Governor Narongsak said. “Our first mission is accomplished. Now we are trying to get them out,” he added.
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