Miracle rescue in Chile thanks to American Exceptionalism

By Judi McLeod
Wednesday, October 13, 2010

God smiled on the dramatic Chilean rescue mission of the miners trapped in the San Jose mine last night, and because of UStream, the World smiled too.

With millions watching on live feed broadcast direct from the site, the first of 33 miners were brought up into the light to see the unforgettable sight of the jubilant smiles and tears of joy of their own family members.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Tears of relief came from World watchers when 31-year-old miner Florencio Avalos Silva was brought to the surface at 11:11 p.m. EST.

The marvel of winching up miners, one by one, through the shaft in a capsule was going to work.

And it wouldn’t have happened without American exceptionalism and ingenuity at a time when patriots are trying to preserve those very characteristics in a fight to Take Back America.

By daylight this morning, nine miners had been rescued with the breathtaking rescue operation expected to continue over the next two days.

Things looked grim for the miners when the San Jose mine collapsed on Aug. 5. It was going to take painstaking patience and a marvel of engineering to bring the men, trapped 2,100 feet below, to the surface.

When it became clear that all 33 miners trapped in the mine were alive, an emergency call went out to find the expertise to save them and was answered by the Mission Woods, Kansas Layne Christensen Company, who sent their most experienced drillers to the rescue.

Although they’ve shunned the publicity, the heroes in this rescue mission are ones of epic proportion. They include two drillers Jeff Hart and Matt Staffel, who had been drilling water wells in Afghanistan to support U.S. troops stationed there. Assisting the drillers were two Spanish-speaking drilling helpers, Doug Reeves and Jorge Herrera from Layne’s western region in the U.S.

(Layne’s Latin American affiliate) “Geotec operations manager James Stefanic said he quickly assembled “a top of the line teamâ€