Seven of the british divers, who in the summer helped save the 12 thai boys out from a cave, were on Friday honoured in the Uk.
It writes the AFP news agency.
Four of the seven divers were honoured for their ‘exceptional courage’, while three were awarded the british order of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).
Among the divers is Vernon Unsworth.
– It was a team effort. I am very proud of the recognition, he says.
Richard Stanton and John Valonthen were the ones who first reached the 12 boys and their fodboldtrænere. They were both awarded the country’s second highest civil tapperhedsmedalje.
The thai football team disappeared on 23. June of this year, after going into a big cave in the north of Thailand. Regnmasser and rising water levels forced them farther and farther into the cave.
Nine days later they were found by divers, who searched for them, but only after the 17 days they were all out again.
A thai diver lost his life, when he participated in the work to place the oxygen cylinders in the cave’s times.
Several divers were also in danger, just as redningsoperationen was about to be over. Divers from the thai navy, told subsequently, that they were close to not being able to get out after the rescue.
It was due to the large pumping system, which for many days had pumped millions of gallons of rainwater out of the cave, failed very shortly after the football team was bailed out.
After the rescue operation was all of 13 people hospitalized for observation at a nearby hospital.
In October visited the boys the well-known american talk show The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Here were the boys, who at the time was between 11 and 16 years, surprised by their great idol, the Swedish football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who shared the gifts out.