HUNTINGTON — They may be men joined by darkness, trapped in a mine, but in life they remain distinct.
There is Flash.
There is Philly.
There are the three hard-working immigrants from Mexico who came to experience the light of an American dream.
There is the campfire cook.
They are Kerry Allred, Brandon Phillips, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Manuel Sanchez and Don Erickson, the Crandall Mine 6.
On Thursday, it didn't matter whether the prayer was in English or Spanish, the message of hope was the same for the miners trapped since early Monday more than 1,800 feet in the belly of a coal mine.
Families and friends filled the red-tile-roofed Catholic Mission just south of Huntington Thursday morning, joining together in a special bilingual Mass as workers continued drilling through the mountain, praying for signs of life.
"We're here as a community of hope," Catholic Bishop John Wester, bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, prayed in Spanish.
"We know that God is with us and will see it through," said Bishop Wester. "He will answer our prayers directly and clearly or give us the grace we need to go through this difficult time," he said.
"There's always hope," said Arch Allred, a cousin of 58-year-old Kerry Allred. "I'm very confident. They've got professionals in there."
Those professionals focused Thursday on boring a small hole into the mine that would allow them to communicate and send down food, water and air.
Kerry has plenty of experience to help him through a situation like this, Arch Allred said of his first cousin, who has been mining for 25 years.
"I grew up with Kerry," the retired miner said. "He's always the life of the party." Allred, who family members say is continually happy and optimistic, has a daughter and two sons, one of whom is helping with the mine rescue efforts.
"I've never heard him say a bad thing about anything," said Kevin Hurdsman, who went to school with Allred's son, Cody.
Phillips, 24, is "Philly" to those who know him well, "thats (sic) what my friends call me," he wrote on his MySpace page.
The Orangeville miner's Web site entry paints a picture of a red-blooded American man, complete with a picture of a bikini-clad woman as his wallpaper. Phillips said he wouldn't mind having a girlfriend. He listed his interests as snowboarding, swimming, camping, fishing, hunting and the outdoors.
On the page, a friend posted a message of support Wednesday.
"Hey brandon i just wanted to tell you how much i love you," wrote "Camille" who included "i pray to god that they will find him!"
Oscar Sosa said he is friends with Hernandez and Payan from the time spent in their native home in Sinaloa, Mexico.
"They are hard-working, good people," he said in Spanish, looking down at his hands, covered in oil from the mechanic's shop. Sosa was a mechanic in the mines for nearly eight years before he gave it up to work at the Castle Service Tire and Auto shop.
"There's danger here, but nothing is equal (to mining) danger," he said, shaking his head. Hernandez is in his late 20s or early 30s, Sosa guessed, and has a wife and a little girl. Payan is much younger, no more than 23, Sosa said.
Sanchez, from Chihuahua, is in his 50s and has been working the mines for more than 20 years, Sosa said. Sosa said he worries about the men's families in Mexico, who are relying on television for news about their loved ones.
"(Their families) are waiting, asking God that everything will turn out OK," Sosa said. The families all know each other because of the Hispanic connection and the mining network.
Hernandez and his wife bought a trailer a year ago from Mike Hurdsman and were working to fix it up.
"He's a really hard-working guy, with a sweet wife and a baby," Hurdsman said.
"They are happy, hard workers," Sosa said. "They work hard all the time. They're good with people. They're good people."
Around town, signs continue to pop up in windows, yards and on fences, asking for prayers and support.
"Show them the light," asks one sign posted at the Utah Power Credit Union on Main Street. The message continues, "Six men, all underground, in a dark you can feel. They have no clue what has happened to them and what is going on outside that mine. There are also six families not knowing if their daddies, husbands and sons are going to make it out alive." The message asked the community to attend a candlelight vigil Thursday evening.
"The only thing worse than being trapped in a mine right now is to be a family member (waiting for information)," said Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. "I think there is a strong optimism, tempered by reality."
Allan Borba, cousin of Kerry Allred, is filled with that optimism.
"I'm 100 percent sure they'll be alive. There's no ifs in my head," he said. And when the miners and the rescuers return, Borba said he will be ready to celebrate. "They're all going to be heroes in my eyes," he said. "(No matter) what the outcome is."
E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com