A heavy vehicle that was carrying four U.S. Army soldiers remained submerged in a swamp in Lithuania on Thursday, two days after the soldiers were reported missing after they did not return from a training mission, the U.S. military said.
The vehicle was discovered on Wednesday after a search by the U.S. Army, the Lithuanian military and other Lithuanian authorities, the U.S. military said. The soldiers still had not been found on Thursday because the Army was struggling to extract the vehicle from the mud.
“The challenges presented by the water, thick mud and soft ground around the site have complicated recovery efforts and have required specialized equipment to drain water from the side and stabilize the ground,” the Army said in a statement on Thursday.
Engineers on the site were building berms — barriers made of dirt and sand — to create a contained area from which water could be pumped and mud dredged, allowing emergency workers to access the vehicle, the Army said.
“Due to the terrain, this is an incredibly complex engineering effort,” Maj. Robin Bruce, a 1st Armored Division engineer, said in the Army statement. He added, “The team is exploring every available option to speed up this process.”
The soldiers, from the First Brigade, Third Infantry Division, were training near Pabrade, a city in eastern Lithuania near the border with Belarus, early Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
They had been sent out in an M88 Hercules, essentially a giant armored tow truck, to extract another Army vehicle, the military said. They may have driven off the road and into the swamp, according to a U.S. Army official in Europe. The soldiers appeared to have been trapped inside as the M88 sank, the official said.
The Third Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart in Georgia, was keeping the families of the soldiers informed on the status of the search, the U.S. military said.
“This tragic situation weighs heavily on all of us, and we’re keeping the families, friends and teammates of our soldiers and recovery team in our thoughts and prayers,” Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, the commanding general of First Armored Division, said on Thursday.
The initial search for the soldiers, through thick forests and swampy terrain, involved hundreds of American and Lithuanian soldiers and law enforcement officers, Lithuanian military helicopters and dive teams, the Army said.
“We are incredibly appreciative of the dedicated and professional efforts of our Lithuanian allies in ensuring the safety of U.S. personnel,” General Taylor said. “They have worked tirelessly alongside us over the last 48 hours and we continue to be grateful for their support.”
President Trump appeared to be unaware of the search for the soldiers when asked by a reporter on Wednesday if he had been briefed on the situation. “No, I haven’t,” Mr. Trump said.
The U.S. military often conducts training missions in Lithuania, a NATO member and staunch ally of Ukraine in its war against Russia. Many of those exercises are held at a training area near Pabrade, and involve soldiers from Lithuania and other NATO allies. Nearby Belarus is a close ally of Russia.
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