2 "emergencies" this AM

My partner and I went up in the Mooney this AM to take advantage of the
unusual overcast at MHR. Tower was reporting around 1,000 overcast with
vis around 3. We took off from our little foothills airport (non-tower)
right behind a Luscome who seemed to depart right into the soup. In the
2 hours it took us to fly 6 or so approachs into MHR we heard 2
aircraft call approach and say they were trapped and wanted to go to
MHR. Neither could fly IFR but one took a bunch of time to explain that
he was taking IFR lessons. Approach reported the airport as IFR at
the time (I don't remember the exact wx at that moment) but offered
vectors to the airport since the guy seemed to be in trouble. The first
guy then reported that he couldn't make it to MHR and wanted another
suggestion (you know a pilot is in trouble when he asks ATC what he
should do!!). Then another pilot called up with the same situation.
Both had taken off right into the wx thinking they could fly under it.
The approach guy seemed very frustrated but helpful. He finally told
the 2nd guy, "I'm not sure what you can do, no one has been able to get
into MHR VFR". Luckily the clouds cleared enough that both guys were
able to land but it could have been ugly.

As a CFI I've flown around wx with non-IFR pilots on many occasions.
Its amazing how far some VFR pilots push themselves once they are in
the air. I think because they don't see wx that often they don't
realize how quick things can go South. I've actually had VFR pilots
tell me they want to just drop down through the cloud layer to get to
the airport when turning away would maintain VFR. This is not meant as
a slight towards all VFR pilots, I know many that have great decision
making skills.

Anyway, just thinking out loud.
-Robert