Chilean Miners Rescued, But Were They Saved? - 60 Minutes - CBS News

Camp HOPE
Retrieved by Pat Darnell

On February 13 this year, I watched this segment of the TV show "60 Minutes." Here is an excerpt; if you want to watch the show click on the LINK ...

Chilean Miners Rescued, But Were They Saved? - 60 Minutes - CBS News: "(CBS) It attracted more than a billion viewers worldwide - one of the most watched television events ever: people were mesmerized as the 33 Chilean miners stepped from darkness into light. It might have been the greatest rescue operation since Noah's Ark. And the miners? They were lionized, living proof that in this software century courage and endurance have not disappeared." (LINK)

EXCERPT  |  " ... Even under these conditions, the men maintained remarkable discipline. They voted on everything, and they stuck to a daily schedule - a general meeting, followed by a prayer service. Then, they had what they called dinner.

Franklin, who gained unprecedented access to the miners, has written a book called "33 Men." He says the men always divided their food evenly even when they were down to one teaspoon of tuna every 48 hours.

But by day 16, Franklin says the miners were all starving and realized they would have to eat the first man who died.

"They told me that they had a pot and a saw ready," Franklin explained.

"Do you think that the potential candidates knew who they were?" Simon asked.

"One of the candidates told me that the guys had been joking, 'Hey, if you die in your sleep, you know, you're gonna be breakfast, lunch and dinner.' So those last few nights he said he couldn't sleep. He was too afraid that if he died that his companions would end up eating him," Franklin said.

Mario Sepulveda, who emerged as the leader of the group early on, says he thought it was only a matter of time.

"How long do you think it would have been before you had to do it?" Simon asked.

"I would say five or ten days. I don't know. But I was gonna get out of there no matter what. Food, or no food, I was gonna get out of there. How? I had to think about which miner was going to collapse first and then I started thinking about how I was going to eat him, I promise you, I wasn't embarrassed, I wasn't scared," Sepulveda said. (60 minutes. Feb 13, 2011. LINK) ... "