All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team

On June 26, the boys’ third day in the cave, they talked about the possibility of a way out through the back of the cave. Some of the boys had heard about this through a local legend, but they had no way of knowing whether it was true. Since in their current location they had fresh water, they decided not to venture further into the cave. The boys battled intense hunger, and Coach Ek encouraged them to conserve energy. However, because of the cool temperature and moisture of the cave, the boys were burning calories simply to keep warm. They huddled together in the dark, saving their flashlight batteries for when light was needed to get a drink of water.

The darkness of a cave is heavy and all-encompassing. Cavers who have spent weeks inside a cave report experiencing panic attacks and hallucinations, so staying calm was crucial to the boys’ survival. Coach Ek encouraged the boys to meditate, a practice most of them were familiar with since most of the team is Buddhist. Meditation is the emptying and calming of one’s mind and could take the boys thoughts away from the difficulties they were experiencing.

As the rain continued, the current only grew stronger, and the water level rose higher. Rescuers set up lights and a communication system at Sam Yaek, also referred to as Chamber 3. They installed pumps to try to lower the water level, but the water kept rising. Vern deduced that water must be entering the cave from Monk’s Series in the north as well as the main cave passage from the south. Based on the cold temperature of the water, it seemed to be coming from underground. On June 26, the water rose high enough to force the SEALs out of the Sam Yaek area. The possibility of rescue was looking bleak, and Vern told the governor that their only chance to rescue the boys was to fly in the few cave divers in the world who have the skills and experience for this type of situation.

On June 27, US Air Force Major Charles Hodges, who was stationed in Japan, got a call requesting his team’s assistance at Tham Luang. Major Hodges knew that to be a good leader, he’d need to avoid becoming emotionally involved in the crisis. He and his team couldn’t let their emotions cloud their ability to make sound decisions. Shortly after the US Air Force Team arrived, the cave filled with even more water, pushing rescuers back further.

Major Hodges’ team started to explore options for finding the boys. One option was to drill into the side of the mountain. Another was to pump enough water out of the cave so that rescuers could swim or walk inside. His team reached out to oil companies in Thailand to ask about the equipment and knowledge they might offer. A third option was to look for other entrances to the cave. Local volunteers worked alongside Thailand’s National Parks Department and the Royal Thai Army to search the surrounding forests for holes that might lead into the cave. Volunteers who came from 1,000 miles away had expertise gained from experience squeezing through caves to find special bird’s nests used for a culinary delicacy. The volunteers were lowered on ropes into shafts they found, but each one was a dead end. From Major Hodges’ perspective, the boys’ chances of surviving weren’t looking good. It seemed that the only way into the cave was to send a person through the flooded passages, and only a few cave divers in the world would be able to attempt this feat.

At base camp outside Tham Luang, the boys’ families offered food to appease the Sleeping Lady, the spirit of the cave. In Thai culture, Buddhism often includes worship of nature spirits. By honoring these spirits and giving them offerings, the people hope the spirits will look on them favorably. A famous monk named Kruba Boonchum paid a visit to the families waiting at base camp. He prayed with them, talked to the spirits of the cave, and reassured the families that their sons would emerge from the cave in a few days. Also arriving at base camp were journalists covering the story.

In a meeting with Thailand’s minister of tourism, Vern explained that expert cave divers were needed to save the boys. He recommended three of the world’s best cave divers for the job: Rob Harper, Rick Stanton, and John Volanthen. Even though these men didn’t have any military status or official positions, they had the specialized skills, experience, and knowledge needed to navigate the narrow cave passages.

Caves often have formations called sumps. A sump is a U-shaped passage section where water is easily trapped. The cave divers Vern recommended are from England, where many of the world’s most notoriously cold, narrow, and muddy sumps are located. The three men were called to come to Thailand. Rob wasn’t a diver but was familiar with Tham Luang and had 50 years of caving experience. Rick and John are some of the most famous and experienced cave divers in the world. When they first arrived at the cave for a look, the floodwaters pushed everyone back further.

On June 28, Jon and Rick could no longer walk to Chamber 3; the floodwaters required that they dive three sumps to reach it. When they got there, they were surprised to hear voices. They found four adults, employees of the Thai Well Water Association who were helping with the pumping efforts in Chamber 3. They’d stopped working to take a nap when the floodwaters rose suddenly. As everyone else hurried to exit Chamber 3, these men were forgotten and slept through the evacuation. Rick and John didn’t have extra tanks or face masks for a rescue, but they came up with an unplanned rescue plan, called a snatch. Rick gave his gear to one of the workers, and John guided him through the first sump. John then returned and handed the gear off to the next worker, and this process continued until all were extracted from the cave.

Meanwhile, deep inside the cave on June 28, the Wild Boars heard water rushing suddenly and saw that the water level was rising quickly. They climbed a steep slope of rock and gravel within the chamber as the water rose about nine feet in less than an hour. The water eventually stopped short of their perch on the hill, but now they were confined to a relatively small space, about “the size of a small bedroom” (79). They noticed that the water was now flowing in a different direction; whereas before it was flowing out of Sam Yaek, it now flowed from behind them, from the unexplored area of the cave. The water that initially trapped them flowed from Monk’s Series, but now the cave was flooding from the main passage too because of the heavy, continuous rain.

The boys thought of their families, and it gave them hope. Coach Ek, however, lost his parents and brother to illness when he was only nine years old. His grandmother sent him to a temple, and he became a novice monk, a common practice for young Thai boys. However, he lived as a novice monk (also called a nain) for almost 11 years. Being a nain involves waking early and walking through the village to receive a meal from villagers. Novice monks spend time praying throughout the day and practice fasting in the afternoon and evening. Although life as a monk is difficult and unfamiliar at first, a nain acclimates fairly quickly and learns that tasks once viewed as impossible are within reach.

Coach Ek left the temple at age 20 and moved to Mae Sai, where he volunteered at Wat Doi Wao, another temple. Another challenge in Coach Ek’s life was that he was stateless, as were three team members of the Wild Boars. This means that they weren’t legal citizens of any country. The problem occurs because of migrations, fear of deportation, and persecution in surrounding nations that pushes migrants to Thailand. Stateless people in Thailand can’t attend college, apply for certain high-paying jobs, vote, buy land, or leave the country.

Buddhism was an important part of Coach Ek’s life, as for many Thai people. Practicing Buddhists in Thailand visit their local temple to support the monks living there, and in return, the monks provide advice or prayer. Alongside his Buddhist faith, Coach Ek treasured the game of soccer, and coaching a soccer team was a dream come true for him. As a coach, Ek didn’t view his job as limited to the soccer field. He took opportunities to strengthen and mentor the team, and the pregame meditations he taught them proved helpful for maintaining the team’s mental strength within Tham Luang.

On June 28, Thanet Natisri arrived at base camp. Thanet was born in Thailand but now is an American citizen. After working with his father-in-law, who owns an engineering company in Thailand, Thanet became an expert on working with groundwater, and he was called in by Colonel Singhanat to help with the water situation at Tham Luang. At first, he was asked to help the team working on drilling into the mountain to reach the soccer team. He found that the drilling team didn’t have proper maps to show the thickness of limestone on the mountain, and Thanet tried to convince officials of the need for seismic mapping equipment but was unsuccessful, so he turned his focus to water diversion, which is what he was called to help with in the first place.

The pumps sucking water out of the cave were clearly not lowering the water levels inside. Thanet knew that the key to lowering the water was to suck out groundwater to make room for floodwaters to soak into the ground. Thanet learned that a pond at a nearby lower elevation called Sai Tong might have been connected to Tham Luang, and he decided to drill under the pond so that more water could be pumped from the cave. He quickly found a group of groundwater engineers who lent him 15 drilling rigs to use at Sai Tong. The next morning, on Friday, June 29, Thanet found farmers with a homemade super-pump. These farmers drove over 500 miles to help, but no one had put them to work until Thanet came along.

Efforts to determine the soccer team’s location in the cave from the mountain surface weren’t working; the boys were too deep inside the mountain. Rescuers even tried using police dogs to sniff out the boys’ location—but without success. Because of the strong current and poor visibility inside Tham Luang, John Volanthen and Rick Stanton couldn’t lay a guideline, and without this lifeline, the two divers refused to reenter the cave. The skilled cave divers also knew that they were some of the only people in the world who could make it through the cave’s difficult sumps; if they entered the cave in these dangerous conditions, they might die, leaving even less hope of recovering the boys.

The Thai military struggled to understand John and Rick’s refusal to dive, and John and Rick didn’t understand why the Thai military couldn’t see the enormous risks. Many experts and professional divers from all over the world were now gathered at base camp, and tension was inevitable. Cultural differences exacerbated conflicts as well. For the British divers, speaking their minds and being honest about the risks—even when it involved raising their voices—seemed like the best thing to do. From the Thai perspective, however, speaking so honestly and directly to a superior and losing one’s cool was seen as disrespectful and immature. The Thai SEALs were ready to do whatever it took to rescue the boys, even if it meant diving in extremely unsafe conditions. The British divers, however, knew that bravery would only get them so far; planning, preparation, and following the rules of cave diving offered their best chance to successfully rescue the boys.