MARION -- Sometimes, it's all about being in the right place at the right time.
Thanet Natisri of Marion found that to be true, playing a pivotal role in the rescue of 12 young soccer players and their coach trapped deep in a remote cave in Thailand.
"I was already in Bangkok working on a groundwater project for the Thai government," said Natisri, who, with his wife, Yada, owns Thai-D restaurant in Marion. "The military requested my assistance. They thought I might be able to help."
Natisri is a self-taught expert in groundwater storage. He has been a supervisor and adviser on Thailand's Aquifer Recovery project for three years, supervising archaeologists and engineers as they divert excess water into underground storage for use during the summer when it is needed.
"All the work that I did three years ago in Thailand had a good outcome," he said. "My reputation there is really good. That's why they decided to call me."
Thanet said he thought rescuing the team and their coach would be simple, until he got to Mae Sai in the Chiang Rai province, about 700 kilometers from Bangkok.
"When I arrived, I realized how serious it was," he said. "It was really complicated, an impossible job."
The 12 members of the "Wild Boars," ranging in age from 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, entered the Than Luang cave as part of a hiking ritual. They became trapped as heavy rains, common to the monsoon season in Thailand, flooded the entrance.
Natisri got to the cave on June 28, six days after the ordeal began. There he found that many of the nearly 1,000 rescue workers from around the world thought the team was already dead.
That they were alive was ascertained, but Natisri said he quickly realized that the resources and expertise of the Thai rescue team were inadequate.
"They are a prideful people," he said, "but they needed help, especially in the dive operation, from the UK team and the international team."
Natisri said one idea considered was to keep running supplies to the kids, and leave the team inside the cave until after the monsoon season. He and others rejected it.
"That is about four months," he said. "They would not have survived."
Some people thought the team might have exited the cave and wandered into nearby Myanmar, but the discovery of their bicycles and the kids' sandals made that unlikely.
Natisri had about 400 rescue workers at his disposal, including 270 soldiers from the small Thai Army unit at Chiang Rai, 150 members of the Thailand rescue volunteer organization, and about 20-40 local villagers.
"We were racing against time," he said. "We had less than six days before the heavy rains came in.
"If we didn't get them out, the cave would be flooded."
It was already raining every day for about 4-8 hours.
"We had to get information from experts," Thanet said.
Many of those "experts" ended up being the locals, who knew the area and the cave well. The team also depended on Vern Unsworth and Martin Ellis, experts from the UK.
"They surveyed the cave and were able to produce maps so we knew what we were dealing with in terms of the conditions and walls and waters inside the cave," Natisri said.
After analyzing the information, the experts presented a threefold plan to the Thai Minister of the Interior. "First, we had to get the water out of the cave," Natisri said. "Second, we had to drain the groundwater under the cave to make more room for the water to go. Then, we had to survey the mountains to find where the water was seeping into the cave."
Natisri said the cave is about 10 kilometers long. "Thaum Luang itself is about 2,000 acres," he said, "but there is about 10,000 acres of catchment area that needed to be considered every time it rained."
The rescue also became a political balancing act, managing the multiple plans and skills of the various international teams.
"The UK (United Kingdom) divers were the true heroes," he said.
He also singled out Josh Morris, a cave expert from Utah now living in Chiang Mai, and Col. Singhanat Losuya from the Thai Army Unit 37 Chiang Mai.
Thanet said he, Morris, and Losuya, with Master Sergeant Derek, Capt. Charles, from the U.S. military team, Mike Clayton, a representative of UK dive team, and an Australian doctor convinced officials and Thai Minister to proceed with what he and the other leaders felt was the best plan.
The rescue team worked about 20 hours a day, looking for holes, surveying the mountains, moving the heavy equipment, and managing the pumping station.
Natisri and his crew managed the groundwater, temporarily flooding the surrounding village and farms. Meanwhile, international dive teams, including three expert cave divers from the UK, a team of divers from the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and divers from Australia and China, joined the Thai Navy SEAL team, dividing the cave into nine sections with each section manned by a different team.
In all, there were about 100 rescue workers involved in the mission inside the cave.
As Natisri and his team worked continuously to divert about a million gallons of water away from the cave, divers carried in supplies, including oxygen and communication devices provided by Maxtech Networks of Israel.
"The oxygen levels were depleted by the water and the number of rescue workers," said Thanet. "The levels were down to about 15 percent in the chamber where the kids were located."
While parts of the cave had been drained, one section just over a half mile in length remained completely submerged. The path out was full of muddy water, strong currents, and a series of twists and turns in narrow passages, some only two feet wide.
Thanet said managing the water was a "really big project."
"If the pumping stations quit working, the water is going to go into the cave," he said.
On July 8, the first four boys were brought out.
While people around the world cheered, Natisri realized that his job was even bigger.
"Now instead of 13 boys, we had hundreds of people involved with the rescue inside the cave," he said.
It took three days to bring all the Wild Boars and their coach safely out of the cave.
"It was really a miracle," said Thanet. One life was lost during 18-day ordeal, that of former Thai Navy SEAL Saman Gunan, who died on his way out of the cave after setting up oxygen tube cable inside it. Gunan had volunteered for the rescue operation.
Natisri's planned stay in Thailand was extended by about a week. He arrived home on July 18, a week after the last of the Wild Boars exited the cave.
"I was surprised at how he looked," said Yada. "He lost about 10 pounds."
The couple spent the day looking at photographs. Yada said she was not surprised that her husband's expertise was requested.
"He has been working construction since he was 12 years old," she said, smiling with obvious pride. "He can do anything."
Even with reports of Hollywood already planning a movie about the incident that captivated people around the world, Thanet is humble about his role.
"I'm just the water guy," he said with a smile.
