An attempt to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in northern Thailand has reminded some Arkansans of a similar event that played out in the state more than 50 years ago.

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 whether the cave was connected to Blanchard Springs Cavern, which opens about 2½ miles away. When they tired and decided to turn around, the entrance had been blocked by rising waters.

The group explored other passages in search of an exit, but all resulted in dead ends, 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 in an attempt 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 to reach the stranded cave explorers 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, then 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 a heart attack and died at the water's edge, just as Wilson was taken 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 University of Arkansas 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 was still underway Thursday for the Thai soccer team, which had been trapped underground for nearly two weeks. At least one plan to extract the boys, ages 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach included scuba diving through the narrow tunnels to the entrance.

Metro on 07/06/2018