Maybe some readers here don't know how important Vernon's role in the rescue was. It is safe to say that without him, the boys would be dead. He is entirely responsible for alerting the Thai government to the need to get the British divers who found the boys and led the rescue involved, he had studied thecave, helped to survey it, and knew its flood patterns during the monsoon, and hence the enormous risk. He also conducted a series of heroic solo trips into the the system in the early stages of the flood starting early on the day after the boys went missing. No one could have deserved their MBE more.