The United States Air Force 320th Special Tactics Squadron provided support operations, logistics, and personnel. American military medical teams were positioned at the cave exit to receive each boy as he was brought out. American drilling teams worked on the alternative shaft options. The scale of the American contribution — in personnel, equipment, and logistical support — was substantial even though the actual extraction dives were performed by the civilian cave divers.
Thai personnel were central to every aspect of the operation. Thai Navy SEALs, led by Captain Anan Surawan, provided military diving capability that proved essential for the support elements of the extraction: placing oxygen tanks at regular intervals through the flooded sections so that the escort divers and the boys would have adequate gas for the transit. This cylinder-staging operation required diving the passages multiple times, in both directions, in the worst conditions the cave offered.
It was during one of these supply dives that the rescue’s only fatality occurred.
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## Saman Kunan
Petty Officer First Class Saman Kunan was 38 years old in July 2018. He had served as a Thai Navy SEAL and retired to work at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok. When the cave rescue began and the call went out for experienced divers, he volunteered and was accepted into the operation.
His specific assignment on July 5 and 6 was part of the cylinder-staging operation: diving through the flooded passages to place oxygen tanks at positions along the route that the extraction divers would follow. The mission required diving the passages multiple times, against current, in zero visibility, managing heavy equipment.