An attempt to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in northern Thailand was continuing Thursday.
More than 50 years ago, a similar event played out in Arkansas.
In April 1965, four spelunkers were trapped for more than a day by floodwaters in Stone County's Rowland Cave. The explorers — Hogan Bledsoe, Mike Hill, Hugh Shell and Steve Wilson — had hoped to see if the cave was connected to Blanchard Springs Cavern, which opens about 2 1/2 miles away. When they tired and decided to turn around, the entrance was blocked by rising waters.
The group explored other passages in search of an exit, but all resulted in a dead end, Wilson recalled Thursday. The retired former director of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission added that the spelunkers made a makeshift tent out of ponchos and a raft in a dry chamber then lit some candles to stay warm. They split a bologna sandwich and a can of fruit cocktail, the only rations they had left.
At one point, they scraped a knife against an electrical wire to short the lighting system in the cave to send an SOS to rescuers.
"We had no idea if anyone was at the mouth of the cave, but someone was out there and sent us messages in morse code that we didn't know," Wilson said.
Arkansas divers tried to swim under the submerged ledge twice that night, but they were forced to turn back. Volunteer rescuers from the National Speleological Society in Washington and three U.S. Navy divers were called in to help. They flew overnight by jet from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland to Little Rock, where state troopers drove them to the mouth of the cave, about 14 miles north of Mountain View.
The rescuers found the group in a cavern about 400 feet from the cave's entrance and helped the stranded men scuba dive out. Wilson, who was the last man taken to safety, said the operation took about one hour for each person.
"It was a long, cold ordeal until the divers came, and it seemed like a long, long time after the last guy went out, and I was there by myself," he said. "My experience with the scuba diving was that I was on the verge of panic."
Navy diver Lyle Thomas, exhausted by hours of swimming, suffered an apparent heart attack and died at the water's edge, just as Wilson was brought to shore.
"I had friends trapped in the cave, so it was one of those surreal moments when I read about the children in Thailand," said Skip Rutherford, dean of the Clinton School of Public Service. "When I first saw that story, I remembered a similar story in the hills of northern Arkansas. It brought it all back."
The rescue operation is still underway for the Thai soccer team, which has been trapped underground for nearly two weeks. At least one plan to extract the boys, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach includes scuba diving through the narrow tunnels to the entrance.
Thai Navy Seals are pumping water out of the cavity in the hopes that the boys can walk out, but more rain is in the forecast. Rescuers are also scouring the land above for a natural opening that could provide more direct access to the boys.