held an appreciation day as cnn s ivan watson reports it s the first time the boys met the man who saved them in that dangerous rescue mission. reporter: thai s government through a celebration for the 12 youth football players from the wild boar soccer team and their coach as well as for some of their rescuers. they were brought in nearly two months after that remarkable rescue from the cave system on the border of thailand to the thai capital. for many of the boys, it was the first time they stepped foot in bangkok and were greeted by the prime minister himself. some of the rescuers were there on handment some of the remarkable team from around the world who helped come together for what was at times a deadly operation where one thai s.e.a.l. divers lost his life.
and there was some wisdom in that. they sent in a bunch of cia officers with suitcases full of money and they hired a bunch of tribesmen to go after bin laden. u.s. officials say american commandos, operating with opposition forces, got within two miles of a cave system that osama bin laden was holed up. but they could not go any further. there was a moment where we had bin laden bottled up inside tora bora, we knew where he was, but the road to pakistan was left open. opposition and u.s. special operations forces rolled into the tora bora mountains in support of fleeing al qaeda fighters. but the pentagon says its anyone s guess where bin laden is. al qaeda got away. bin laden went off to pakistan. but what was very striking how quickly it turned to iraq. i never say anything s inevident, but if i were saddam hussein, i d be thinking very carefully about the future and i d be looking very closely to
navy s.e.a.l. divers tonight said they didn t think that they d be able to dive them out but they did and not only get them out it proved in hospital that all of them were in pretty good physical condition considering and mental condition, too. and they were released discharged from the hospital in chiang rai tonight in amazing form and they told their stories of daring and how they had realized that they were trapped down in there, how the initial panic had turned to how to survive and great tales of comradely a comradery and trying to explore out of the cave system and then as you mentioned they turned their attention to that thai former navy s.e.a.l. diver that died. and they were only told of this two days ago and they stood in front of a portrait of this man tonight and the youngest, the smallest of them all, a little 11-year-old said, sir, thank you for giving your life up so that
but the most dramatic and daring part of the rescue happened off camera in the submerged part of the cave system. these divers, you know, they went in on three consecutive days. that s that s tough. you know, four, five, six hours each time. you know, in not so nice conditions. but super human. we know the boys were sedated in someway. an australian cave diver dr. richard harris was part of the team. he s an es northwesta activity. some of these boys couldn t swim and they re being put into cold, cold water and with wet suits on, full face mask. you know, alien to them. so it was the only way. the most important thing was to have a full face mask which we acquired on-site with
imagine the concept total darkness, cold, and rushing waters. that s the way divers described the thai cave where 12 young boys and their football coach spent 18 days despite the treacherous conditions, divers were able to guide them all out to freedom and safety. the boys and their coach still recovering in the hospital. these new photos show them paying their respects to the former navy s.e.a.l. diver who died during the rescue operation. it was a long and dangerous journey thuft ca journey out of that cave system. nick glass has this story. reporter: has there ever been a cave rescue quite like this one? the thai military aligned with an international team of volunteers searching until the lost boys were found and daringly rescue misdemeanor remote mountains in northern thailand. we re still piecing the story together in all of its inspiring heroic detail, so much.