![]() Thirteen Lives isn’t the first film to spotlight the cave rescue. After the rescue, they were granted Thai citizenship. Three of them, as well as their 25-year-old assistant coach, were stateless, among an ethnic minority that lives in Thailand without the same rights as citizens. Howard also chose to engage with some of the political issues underlying the boys’ rescue. (And in both films, as the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw points out, “we have the unlucky number right up there in the title.”) The 1995 thriller, like Thirteen Lives, dramatizes a real-life disaster solved through the collaboration of brilliant minds working against the clock as millions followed along in real time. ![]() The film is perhaps reminiscent of one of Howard’s most famous movies, Apollo 13. Thirteen Lives, a new movie from acclaimed director Ron Howard, dramatizes the rescue mission-and the many people who took part in it. Over more than two weeks, some 10,000 people-including 2,000 soldiers, 200 divers and volunteers from around the world-worked to bring the team to safety. Isolated in the dark, the boys weren’t privy to the massive scale of the rescue unfolding outside. Many people come.” The making of Thirteen Lives “We’re coming it’s okay,” one of the divers reassured the group. In a matter of days, monsoon rains would flood the cave system, making the passages even more inaccessible. The journey through Tham Luang was dangerous for even the world’s best cave divers, let alone a group of inexperienced swimmers between the ages of 11 and 16. The riskiest parts of the rescue were still to come. The boys had a lot of questions: What day was it? (Monday.) How long had they been trapped? (Ten days.) Could they leave right away? One by one, the boys emerged from around a dark corner on a narrow rock shelf. More than a mile and a half from the cave’s entrance, on day nine of the search, Stanton and Volanthen surfaced once more. Photo by Lillian Suwanrumpha / AFP via Getty Images Thai soldiers in the cave on June 26, 2018 The rescuers didn’t know how deep into the cave they would need to go, nor whether they would find any survivors. The cave system-one of the longest in Thailand-stretches six miles long. Outside, the world watched as rescuers searched for 12 boys and their soccer coach, all of whom were trapped somewhere in the flooded tunnels. (Levels below 16 percent can trigger hypoxia, a type of oxygen depletion that causes headaches, confusion and restlessness.) In other parts of the cave system, the tunnels were fully submerged, forcing the divers to swim against strong currents through harrowingly narrow spaces, some as small as 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall. They did notice, though, that oxygen was low-around 15.6 percent. When they reached sections with air pockets, they swam to the surface and called out.įor the first severa l days, Rick Stanton and John Volanthen heard nothing. To maintain morale among the troops and provide much-needed breaks from foggy Fort Cronkhite, leave passes were awarded and the soldiers who received them eagerly traveled to local bars in Sausalito or took buses into soldier-friendly San Francisco.Swimming through the labyrinthine tunnels of the Tham Luang cave in summer 2018, the two divers couldn’t see their hands in front of their faces. The newly-constructed chapel at Fort Barry provided multi-denominational services and the chaplain also sponsored dances and stage shows for the men. While off-duty, the men relaxed in the recreation building (called "day rooms"), where the army provided ping-pong tables, pool tables and popular reading material. In addition to providing food and housing, the army also provided medical and dental care to the soldiers there was even an on-post barber. Fort Cronkhite, like most World War II posts, provided the men with the bare necessities for military life. The soldiers trained constantly, either up at Battery Wallace or on the post’s main parade ground which was located in the large open space that is now a parking lot. A soldier’s daily life on post was structured and regimented they were required to drill and train, eat and clean their barracks, all at tightly scheduled times. A soldier’s life at Fort Cronkhite, as anywhere in the army, meant that you did what you were told to do. The first soldiers stationed at Fort Cronkhite were assigned to the 6 th and 5 th Coast Artillery Regiments.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |