Rescuers in Lithuania were digging in a peat bog Thursday as they tried to recover the submerged vehicle of four U.S. Army soldiers who went missing during a training exercise earlier this week.
The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle was found more than 16 feet below ground Wednesday, a day after the soldiers went missing while training with Lithuanian armed forces and law enforcement.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Gintautas Paluckas expressed support for the rescue operation Thursday after visiting the training ground near the town of Pabradė, about 30 miles south of the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, and 6 miles from the border with Belarus.
“Our thoughts & prayers are with their families and brothers in arms,” he said in a post on X.
He was joined at the scene by Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė, who said she was “deeply saddened” by the soldiers’ disappearance.
“Everybody remains on standby, ready to provide emergency medical support,” she said on X.
Šakalienė told Lithuanian broadcaster LRT on Thursday that overnight rescue efforts involved water pumping and ground reinforcement, leading to “certain positive signs that give hope for a quicker scenario.”
The U.S. Army said Wednesday that the search for the soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, was continuing and that recovery efforts were underway by the U.S. Army, Lithuanian Armed Forces and civilian agencies.
President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday evening that he had not been briefed about the missing soldiers.
The NATO military alliance also said the search was ongoing, clarifying comments that Secretary-General Mark Rutte made earlier Wednesday suggesting that the missing soldiers had died.
“He was referring to emerging news reports & was not confirming the fate of the missing, which is still unknown,” a spokesperson said in a post on X.
Lithuania, a former Soviet republic that is now in the European Union, has been a NATO member since 2004. It has hosted hundreds of American troops on a rotational basis since 2014 as part of a U.S. operation called “Atlantic Resolve” in Eastern Europe and the Baltic region, which began after Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine.
The country shares a 421-mile border with Belarus, led by Alexander Lukashenko, who was sworn in for a seventh term Tuesday and has been called “Europe’s last dictator.” Lukashenko has been a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, allowing him to use Belarus as a staging area for his invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
