Pabrade, Lithuania — Lithuania’s president said Friday that he hoped for “a miracle” as he visited the site of a rescue operation to recover four missing U.S. Army soldiers from their submerged vehicle. The four soldiers, assigned to the Army’s 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, went missing early Tuesday morning during a maintenance mission to recover another U.S. Army vehicle in the Pabrade training area, near Lithuania’s border with Belarus, during a scheduled training missing, the Army has said.
Search and rescue teams were at the scene on Friday using heavy military equipment and excavators to remove silt from the body of water where the vehicle was found on Wednesday.
“I am still hoping for a miracle,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told reporters in Pabrade. “Although many sceptics would probably say that there is nothing to hope for in these circumstances, I want to believe.”
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In a statement issued Friday, the U.S. Army said the hulking, 70-ton M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the missing U.S. soldiers had been operating “was found submerged approximately 15 feet under a body of water and mud in a boggy area” connected to a nearby lake.
“The area around the site is incredibly wet and marshy and doesn’t support the weight of the equipment,” the U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s public affairs office said in a statement Friday. “Draining the area has been slow and difficult due to ground water seepage,” it said.
“This will be a long and difficult recovery operation, but we are absolutely committed to bringing our soldiers home,” said Curtis Taylor, Commanding General of the 1st Armored Division.
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The main goal Friday was to remove the mud from the submerged vehicle and identify possible attachment points for extraction, Lithuanian Armed Forces chief General Raimundas Vaiksnoras said.
“We are working and will continue to work until we can give clear and honest answers to those who need to know the most — family members,” Vaiksnoras said on Facebook on Friday.
Lithuania, a NATO and EU member, hosts more than 1,000 American troops stationed on a rotational basis.
The U.S. Army’s Europe command said in its statement that a “large capacity slurry pump, cranes, more than 30 tons of gravel, and subject matter experts from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are just some of the assets that arrived on site to assist with accessing the M88.
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The Polish Armed Forces have also volunteered a unit of military engineers, which is moving toward the site.”
“We greatly appreciate the Lithuanian president’s visit today and the exceptional support we continue to receive from the Lithuanian Army,” said Taylor of the 1st Armored Division. “This will be a long and difficult recovery operation, but we are absolutely committed to bringing our soldiers home. I remain incredibly impressed by the discipline, commitment and comradery in this unit as they attempt to recover their missing comrades.”