The our bodies of three US troopers, lacking for six days, had been present in a muddy swamp close to the Lithuanian metropolis of Pabradė, the place they had been participating in navy workout routines, confirmed the American military.
The rescue groups are nonetheless searching for a fourth soldier.
“The troopers we misplaced on this tragedy weren’t solely troopers – they had been a part of our household … however the analysis was not over till everyone seems to be at house,” mentioned Maj Gen Christopher Norrie in a declaration issued by American Europe and Africa.
The complicated analysis and rescue mission included the Army and the United States Navy, along with the Lithuanian and Polish Armed Forces in an try that requested “monumental sources”, says the notice.
The four soldiers have disappeared On the morning of March 25, whereas an train of their Ercole M88a2 takes place – a big armored automobile designed to recuperate broken tanks and different autos from battlefields.
They had been “conducting a mission to restore and tow a tactical immobilized automobile” after they disappeared, says the declaration.
The automobile of the troopers was discovered immersed in a swamp close to the border with Belarus initially of March 26. Pulling it out of the mud was a tough mission.
The divers of the US Navy had been launched to hook the cables on the sunk automobile and needed to maneuver “via thick layers of mud, clay and sediments with zero visibility”, says the notice.
Those cables had been then related to 2 different Hercules M88A2, which additionally began to slip into the swamp, resulting in being known as a number of bulldozers.
Other heavy development gear have been launched together with excavators and shutting pumps and sewage, in addition to technical specialists and “a number of hundred tons of gravel and earth,” mentioned the American military.
Sunday, troopers, navy commanders and Lithuania’s protection minister participated in a mass that was held within the capital, Vilnius.
“Lithuania cries along with the American nation,” wrote the president of the city Gitanas Nausėda on X.
“Please settle for my heartfelt condolences, in addition to these of the Lithuanian individuals, for you, the family members of those that have misplaced their lives and all of the individuals of the United States of America,” he mentioned, addressing the President of the United States Donald Trump.
Lithuania, a NATO and EU member, is the bottom for greater than 1,000 American troops stationed at rotation.
The identities of the 4 troopers, who had been assigned to the primary fight crew of the armored brigade, the third infantry division, had been held till their shut family are knowledgeable.
They had been lined up in Lithuania as a part of the Atlantic Resolve operation – an response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Their house base is Fort Stewart, within the American state of Georgia.
The American military and the Lithuanian authorities are investigating the reason for the accident.
