In Pabrade, Lithuania, On Friday, Lithuania’s president said he hoped for “a miracle” as he visited the site of an operation to get four missing U.S. Army troops out of their submerged vehicle. The four soldiers were from the Army’s 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. They went missing early Tuesday morning while on a maintenance mission to find another U.S. Army vehicle in the Pabrade training area, which is close to the border between Lithuania and Belarus. The Army says they were supposed to be training there when they disappeared.
Heavy military equipment and cranes were used by search and rescue teams on Friday to clear silt out of the body of water where the car was found on Wednesday.
“I am still hoping for a miracle,” Gitanas Nauseda, the president of Lithuania, told reporters in Pabrade. “Although many sceptics would probably say that there is nothing to hope for in these circumstances, I want to believe.”
On Friday, the U.S. Army said that the huge, 70-ton M88 Hercules armored recovery truck that the missing soldiers were driving “was found submerged approximately 15 feet under a body of water and mud in a boggy area” that was connected to a nearby lake.
“The area around the site is very wet and marshy and can’t hold the weight of the equipment,” the public affairs office of the U.S. Army in Europe and Africa said in a statement Friday. “Draining the area has been slow and difficult due to ground water seepage,” it stated.
Curtis Taylor, Commanding General of the 1st Armored Division, said, “This will be a long and hard recovery operation, but we are fully committed to bringing our soldiers home.”
General Raimundas Vaiksnoras, head of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, said that the main goal on Friday was to get the muddy car out of the water and find possible attachment points for pulling it out.
Vaiksnoras said on Facebook on Friday, “We are working and will continue to work until we can give clear and honest answers to family members who need to know the most.”
As a member of both NATO and the EU, Lithuania is home to more than 1,000 American troops who are stationed there on a rotating basis.
In a statement, the U.S. Army’s Europe command said that assets like a “large capacity slurry pump, cranes, more than 30 tons of gravel, and subject matter experts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers” had arrived at the spot to help with getting to the M88.
There is also a group of military engineers from the Polish Armed Forces that are going toward the scene of the accident.
Taylor of the 1st Armored Division said, “We really appreciate the Lithuanian president’s visit today and the great support we continue to get from the Lithuanian Army.” “This recovery operation will take a long time and be hard, but we are determined to bring our soldiers home.” As they try to find their missing comrades, I am still very struck by how disciplined, dedicated, and friendly this unit is.
