The successful search and the coming rescue of the Wild Boar football team is one of our finest moments. The 12 boys and coach were found and then broadcast on video to the nation by skilled and tenacious divers who refused to take a step or stroke backwards for 10 agonising days. They are heroes. So are the hundreds, Thai and foreigner, who supported them directly, as are the thousands who backed them actively.
The fabulously positive result of finding the boys and coach in a remote cavern of a dangerous cave was the icing on a national cake of pride. The emotional and unexpected climax to the search resulted in possibly the greatest positive outpouring of the country in memory. In the recent past, Thais have come together too often over tragedy -- the Typhoon Gay disaster of 1989, the Andaman Sea-Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, the unspeakable grief of the death of King Bhumibol.
The search for the boys of Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district was a different unity. Even a week and a half into the operation, no one spoke of calamity. From the Royal Thai Navy Seals team ("We never will retreat from this search") to the citizen and foreign friend in the street, there was only unmitigated optimism and the certainty of success. When people saw the Seals' video with the two Englishmen connecting with the boys, there were plenty of tears of joy.
