The Four missing US Army soldiers

[sinkingfeeling]

12. The latest, an hour ago, here:

https://www.11alive.com/article/news/national/military-news/four-us-soldiers-missing-lithuania-recovery-efforts-update-sunday-march-30/85-a3717f4b-576f-4056-ab97-8917c47fdf01

Recovery efforts continue for 4 US soldiers whose armored vehicle sank into mud of 'bog swamp-like area' in Lithuania

VILNIUS COUNTY, Lithuania — Recovery efforts are continuing Sunday in Lithuania to recover four U.S. soldiers based out of Georgia's Fort Stewart whose armored vehicle sank into the wet mud of what's been described as a "bog swamp-like area."

The soldiers, with the 3rd Infantry Division, have been missing since the morning of March 25. Their vehicle has since been located submerged in a mix of mud, water and silt in a forested area near Lithuania's border with Belarus.

“It is highly complex trying to get to the vehicle itself with the terrain out here and where the M88 is sitting in a bog swamp-like area, below the waterline. So not only are we dealing with the terrain, a lot of mud that is over top of the vehicle, but also the fact that it's 70 tons that we're trying to recover out of a swamp or bog,” Brig. Gen. John Lloyd, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers North Atlantic Division, said in a statement. “Last night, divers were in the water trying to get to the vehicle. We were unable to because of the amount of mud. We continue to work on the excavation and pumping all the water out of the bog and also using excavation equipment to try to get to the vehicle.”

This week the wife of one of the soldiers, 25-year-old Sgt. Edvin Franco, spoke to 11Alive's Cody Alcorn. The wife, Georgia Franco, said her husband has been a tank mechanic stationed at Fort Stewart since joining the Army in 2018.