Thai Cave Rescue Mission - MSgt Ken O'Brien at NMUSAF
Vložit
- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- Featured guest speaker, Master Sgt. Ken O’Brien, shared his experience in the Thai Cave Rescue during the Humanitarian exhibit opening at the National Museum of the USAF. O'Brien played an instrumental role in the Thailand Cave rescue mission. He was essential in creating the rescue plan, which placed himself as the furthest American inside the cave. During the mission, he also led the effort to retrieve and successfully resuscitate a Thai Navy SEAL. His team’s heroic efforts led to the rescue of 13 Thai civilians.
A pararescueman who played an instrumental role in saving a boys soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018 was among 12 airmen recognized for outstanding leadership at the Air Force Academy.
Tech Sgt. Ken O'Brien, of the 320th Special Tactics Squadron at Kadena Air Force Base in Japan, was lauded for his work in the Thai cave, including playing an essential role in creating the rescue plan and placing himself as the American farthest inside the cave.
He also led an effort to retrieve and resuscitate a Thai Navy SEAL who lost consciousness under water during the rescue. Additionally, O'Brien was recognized for embedding with the Secret Service and Joint Special Operation Forces as part of the presidential protection team during the first U.S. and North Korean negotiation summit in history, also in 2018.
Haven't thought of this in a number of years and just saw the movie today on Amazon.
Will be remembered as one of the greatest showings of international humanity ever.
Same. I’ve been on a binge to find content relating to this rescue since watching the movie on Amazon. The movie covers some of it, but I’m slowly realising that every single person played a really significant role in the success of the rescue. It so heart warming to know that everyone from all over just rolled up their sleeves and did what needed to be done. Humanity at its finest.
@@KienDLuu Huge Effort!!!
@@KienDLuu it was a team effort. Unfortunately some want to take all credit away from the British Cave divers that had the team and experience. It was a trade by
To lose the two Thai divers, that just shows these dives are extremely dangerous. The redirection of the water played a huge part and definitely saved the boys in the end.
Well said.
Thank you for USA support from the people of Thailand.
YES!!!
Thank you for your bravery and heroism. This is a true mission impossible that u guys have accomplished.
wow, this is so impressive. It kind of reminds me of an avalanche accident in Austria many years ago. A village was trapped and the many people could only be evacuated by helicopters. The US Air Force was asked to help and when the grateful mayor of the village gave an interview he said, "The Americans plan and plan and plan but when they're done with their plans they fly like devils." Kudos to all involved.
Hats off to those folks like him.
They are incredible!!!
The organization required for this rescue was so amazing. It took all of the people involved to get it done as it was. Each person there to help deserves credit for putting their lives on the line for these kids. It doesn’t matter who planned what when it took every single person there doing their part to pull it off. This is the greatest rescue I have ever heard about in all my life! Wow! God’s mercy was so evident to me in this event! 😀
Incredible braveness and guts in the guys who dove in the cave. The kindness shown by everyone is overwhelming too. Some people are butt hurt that he said American kids would have been dead, but it's true.
❤
Please note that the pumps were volunteers who donated their own pumps and brought them without being asked and the fields were willingly sacrificed by the land owners in hopes of giving the divers more time. Also, I know the US team did a lot, but it was mostly the UK divers. They are the ones that contacted the other cave divers and came up with the plan on how to get the kids out!! It was the first 2 Brits that figured out their oxygen was running low..Please give the credit where the credit is due.
Of course, everyone knows that this is the perspective from his unit mainly. Plenty of other videos on the UK divers and even a film which I just watched and came here.
All the people get credit from the cooks to people carrying the tanks to the media to government, everyone worked as a TEAM that's why it was a success. Great TEAM WORK!!
Credit has been given appropriately. This video is the Americans story which they are fully entitled to tell. A job this size requires many spheres of high level expertise.
Rick Stanton and John Vorlanthen from the UK were the first two divers that negotiated the cave to locate the boys.
Not entirely true. John and Rick had given up on the rescue because they thought it was impossible. It was the Thai Navy Seals and it's support team a French and Belgium diver who negotiated the cave first and proved the Brits wrong. After Rick and John returned the teams were diving in rotation and it was only luck that the Brits had found the children. It was team effort but it seems some rescuers like John Volanthen have a problem ith sharing the credit.
@@movietimecapsule well kids were found that's all that matters. There's plenty of time for an international Thai cave Olympics event to take place. lol
@@movietimecapsule Strange then that the French, Belgian and Thai SEALS never executed the difficult/risky part of the rescue of the kids? I don't think that was down to luck.
@@rasputinswalloper475 When the British divers had given up it was the Belgium diver who brought the Brits back into the rescue by proving to them that diving was possible. The kids were then found with the teams diving in rotations. On July 6 when the British divers were put in charge of the extraction of the children they repaid the Belgium diver by kicking him out of the rescue (no joke)
@@chrisgermann6658 AMAZING RESCUE!!!
You are the Man MSgt O’Brien!
We agree!!!
Interesting how the grown men workers that were dived out became a premise as to how the children would be better rescued came into play. This incident from beginning to end gives me chills. Praise be to God
Edit: God bless you and the entire team. Thank you for giving this operation your heart and soul and risking your lives
It truly does feel divinely ordained. The monk who said all the children were alive but there would be two sacrifices... and then Saman died, and so did one of the British divers' father, just as all the boys and their coach were free and the cave fully flooded. Just such a miracle.
This was great thanks for posting, i love to see the problem solving and planning
" FOREVER HEROES"
Alls of the team,
" Khun Samam GUNAN & Beirut PAKBARA, forever in ours hearts"
Pride and Honor 🙏🇹🇭🇬🇧🇫🇷❤️
True hero. Most people don’t realize that Beirut Pakbara another Thai diver died from getting an infection in those caves.
@@RogueCylon THX 🙏👌
Thank you for uploading the full video with the audio fixed!
John and Rick lost hope at one point but were encouraged to stay.. All involved in the final rescue, will always be mind-blowing to me and only last evening I introduced this event to my 14yr old grandson LJ for many reasons.❤ You men, up against all the odds of diplomacy, mother nature, exhaustion and probably fear and doubt..pushed through reguardless to pull off the impossible to get the children and coach out of the complicated cave system before the season. Ultimate respect and love from a Brit nana Sir. ❤ 🇬🇧
Not to knock any of this, but Harris says his conversations were with Rick Stanton who had the idea of sedation and reached out to Harris. Harris devised the plan. The US on-site organization was crucial, the provision of supplies etc.
Most excellent presentation on this incredible mission. Thank you to the US team off the much needed support. ❤
This story is crazy.
Yes indeed!!!
Thank you
Well done. God bless you all
Glad to find this video. 👍🙏
I still can’t believe that all 13 of them were alive when they were initially found . He said that if they were American children they would be dead , I think he was being polite here , because I’m sure if it were any other children in the world also.
This bit melts my heart when he said that he understood that some of the children would need to ride their bikes home once they got out! God love them!
Logistics save lives. Amazing team effort. Truly amazing.
I’d like to point out one incorrect fact. On the 3rd day there was an extra Irish diver that took one of the kids for the initial part of the dive, it wasn’t one of the original 4 going back.
Rip to dom the team captain who died in England in 2023 from a head injury and the 2 Thai navy seals Suman gun an and the second navy seal who died from a blood infection contracted in the cave
Thanks for all heroes from the first neigbour until who are prayed for them from the house all around the world
The video implied that the U.S. worked out the plan! Sorry but Rick Stanton and John Vorlanthen the two top British cave divers were and are the top cave rescuers in the world. It was their acknowledged skills and expertise that solved this epic.
Wrong the actual plan on how to dive the kids out was set by the Australian doctors. And it was John and Rick who gave up on the rescue.
????? How did they give up????? Harry did the sedation and Rick and John, Jason and Chris dived them out. Read both their recent excellent books.
@@msmoppett Right. Also the Brits weren't "tasked" with getting food to the boys. They saw that no one else was making any effort to get food to the boys so they took it upon themselves to get the MRE's from the Americans, strip them down and dive them in, a dive so grueling it was almost beyond their ability, and they were two of the most capable cave divers in the world. The Seals who preceded them in (after the Brits found the boys) took very little--just some "energy gels"-- as nourishment for the starving boys. Then four of the Thais decided to stay with the boys, providing moral support but also bringing 4 more mouths to feed, with no idea how to go about feeding them. The great international cooperation so widely reported was overstated--the Thai authorities asked for the British divers, but the That Seals resented their presence and gave them minimal help, at first even refusing to let them even enter the cave. Moreover, as you suggest, the narrator of this video is a little too free with his use of "we" and "us." The Americans (and I'm American) provided valuable support, and deserve great credit for their contribution, but weren't really the leaders of the operation.
@@movietimecapsule if rick and john ''gave up'' on the rescue why did the thai authorities give them awards ? thai people must be stupid to do that , agreeed ?
Without the 4 British cave drivers and an Australian doctor, the mission would not succeed. The rest are supporting team.
You guys did incredible 👍
We we we we and more we’s.Did not the Brits and the Ozzy hatch the plan?Some American chest thumping going on here me thinks!!
Pretty much. They were the elite cave divers, the sharp end. They knew what was and was not possible. So there’s no doubt who was really bossing this. Both Thai and US Navy Seals have no to little experience of cave diving. But the support and logistics of all those involved were massively important.
As an American I found it a bit much and had to stop at the 6:33 mark.
If you'd been 'in it' you'd be chest thumping as well, yes the Yanks push the boundaries of that, but can you blame them, half the time people from everywhere are telling them they're crap, they have no history, and they're crass, and those are only the ones not chanting to "Death to America" and burning the Stars and Stripes. So let them at it, can't say I blame them or hold it against them.
How precious lives are
Dios con todos ustedes de instrumento. Gracias infinitamente
"American kids would have been dead for sure". I love the honesty of the officer.
Should of called the movie the TRUE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
In loving memory of the Thai boy cave survivor who passed a few days ago😥😢
Mission of the wold
Ironically there are many documentaries that don't even mention the US help. From what I understand all the logistics and much of the only organization was done by the US and AU military.
Thank God people like the USAF PJs exist. When bad stuff happens you want guys like them showing up to help save your life. This was so information rich. so many people learned valuable lessons. No one involved had any confidence that it would work. That's how these wonderful crazy bastards are. they did shit that had never occurred and batted 1000%. 13 of 13. fucking bad asses.
🙏🙏🙏🙏🇹🇭🙏🙏🙏🙏
Didn't the British have something to do with this?
They sedated them so they wouldn’t panic not so that they wouldn’t remember
Well done to u s for the arranging of this also making the authority's listen if it wasent for the u s they would not have agreed to this I am from the UK an well proud of the UK s part in this I love caving but never a cave diver all military divers an navy seals an any others are not trained in cave diving they are the best at what they do but they are not cave divers although I did bump into a well known also one of the best British cave drivers Martin Farr teaching big military men to cave drive in the UK few years ago what all acheived in this and what it took to do is amazeing and thanks to this guy for telling us Iike it really was not like the Thailand government said it was also they need to pay the farmers who lost all there crops ruined there businesses these ppl had nothing b4 this there were offered money but they refused to b payed for there part in rescue but they lost everything
Thai government missed up to report those who they thank in order 😁 Some divers took the credit which is actually they just do less sacrifice for that events 😅 The true one who did big sacrifices was set aside so sad but anyway atleast the help pour Ang boys was out.
Did they change the dates for using the cave after the early flooding that trapped the soccer team? Maybe they survived better being young athletic healthy to begin with. They may have saved other lives from going thru this experience. More ppl will be more cautious about that cave, other caves.
Martha, when I visited the cave it was completely locked down, and is now a huge tourist attraction. This was maybe two years ago and I think the plan is to reopen the cave, but it will never be reopened where kids can just ride their bikes up and walk into it. Those days are over.
@@TheRDMagee I think Thailand has at least 130 caves that open to the public as part of national parks. I wonder if they would have to do the risk assessment to all and close some down. Too bad
Thank you