[Blackwell:] A 3-year-old boy in North Carolina was missing for nearly three days in rain and freezing temperatures.
[Paul:] Cnn's Brynn Gingras introduces us to the officers who went beyond the call of duty to find him.
[Brynn Gingras, Cnn Correspondent:] Deep in this swath of pine trees amongst the thorns and briars, a lost little boy was found.
[Shane Grier, Chocowinity Ems:] It took some force to get him out of it. I actually had to pull him out of the vegetation.
[Gingras:] Against all odds, 3-year-old Casey Hathaway was rescued, 55 hours after he went missing from his great grandmother's North Carolina home. It was a tip that led Grier to this very spot at the edge of the woods.
[Grier:] And that's when we heard him say mama.
[Gingras:] Clear as day?
[Grier:] Clear as day.
[Gingras:] Grier is one of hundreds of local and federal emergency responders who tirelessly searched for Casey through rain and freezing temperatures.
[Chip Hughes, Sheriff, Craven County, North Carolina:] Casey is a small child, he's cold, he's hungry.
[Gingras:] The massive operation was under the command of the Craven County sheriff Chip Hughes.
[Hughes:] We started looking at the percentages of what is the chance a 3-year-old child in the elements with the wildlife that's in the area, bears, coyotes is going to survive this. The odds were not in our favor.
[Gingras:] It's a search that captivated the nation and brought a community together.
[Hughes:] People were when they showed up, you could see the look of determination. You know, Casey is he belongs to all of us now.
[Gingras:] All the while, Hughes promised Casey's family, he'd bring their boy home.
[Hughes:] That was a tall promise I made to this lady, and we were committed to stay to the end.
[Gingras:] And you kept that in your mind, it sounds like?
[Hughes:] Exactly. And when the rescue pulled up, the doors opened and I saw this, you know, 25-pound child, 3-year-old there with his eyes open, big brown eyes, it was tear-jerking, this was when we made good on our promise. I would have stayed out there an entire year just to make that happen.
[Gingras:] Casey's body temperature was low, but he only had scratches. He told his parents he befriended a bear. His family emotionally thanked law enforcement.
[Unidentified Female:] We're very thankful that you took the time out to come search for Casey and prayed for him.
[Gingras:] As for Grier, he'll never forget that gratitude. He now keeps this picture in his office, a gift from Casey's family of Grier and the little boy he saved.
[Grier:] I think everybody at some point in time was expecting a real bad ending from this and for the ending to be so good, I mean, you know, a little boy is home because of the efforts that everybody did here.
[Gingras:] A reminder of what he humbly calls a miracle. Brynn Gingras, Cnn, Craven County, North Carolina.
[Paul:] No doubt, a big thanks to those officers. So a flight from Los Angeles to Maui ended with a lot of frustration for these passengers, why their plane was forced to turn around three times before they finally said we're cancelling.