The most moving part of the story:
McCloy said the miners' first action was to don their air packs. He shared his with Groves, while his co-workers shared theirs with others.
The miners returned to their rail car in hopes of escaping along the track, but had to abandon the effort because of bad air. They then retreated, hung a curtain to keep out the poisonous gases and tried to signal their location by beating on roof bolts and plates.
"We found a sledgehammer, and for a long time, we took turns pounding away," McCloy wrote. "We never heard a responsive blast or shot from the surface."
Martin "Junior" Toler, 51, and Tom Anderson, 39, tried to find a way out but were turned back by heavy smoke and fumes, McCloy said.
"We were worried and afraid, but we began to accept our fate," he wrote. "Junior Toler led us all in the Sinners Prayer" — a prayer for salvation of one's soul.
"Some drifted off into what appeared to be a deep sleep, and one person sitting near me collapsed and fell off his bucket, not moving. It was clear that there was nothing I could do to help him," McCloy wrote.
Doctors have been unable to pinpoint why McCloy, 27, was the only who survived the 41 hours it took rescuers to find the crew. He left the mine battered and comatose and spent months in the hospital. He suffered brain damage that affects his ability to hold a conversation. "I cannot begin to express my sorrow for my lost friends and my sympathy for those they left behind," he wrote. "I hope that my words will offer some solace to the miners' families and friends who have endured what no one should ever have to endure."
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