The rumors are that they drove the vehicle into a swamp and drowned. Can anyone find any official Army statement about this?
Jus this from US Army Europe and Africa. Nothing from the Pentagon yet as far as I can tell.
https://www.europeafrica.army.mil/ArticleViewPressRelease/Article/4135345/press-release-us-soldiers-reported-missing-in-lithuania/
And that release just says they are missing.
Well it’s clear they are dead–but not how:
Four U.S. soldiers killed during training in Lithuania, says NATO chief
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told news agencies on Wednesday that four U.S. soldiers that had gone missing during military exercises in Lithuania had died.
He told reporters during a trip to Warsaw it was still early news and there were no details. Earlier the U.S. military said a search-and-rescue effort was underway after the four soldiers were reported missing during a military exercise at a training ground.
Some better information:
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 vehicle was found more than 16 feet under water Wednesday, a day after the soldiers went missing while training with Lithuanian armed forces and law enforcement…
The recovery effort, which have been underway for the last 48 hours, has required specialized equipment to pump water and mud from the site and stabilize the soft ground of the surrounding area, which will allow it to support the heavy equipment needed to recover the vehicle.
“Due to the terrain, this is an incredibly complex engineering effort,” said Maj. Robin Bruce, 1st Armored Division Engineer. “The team is exploring every available option to speed up this process.”
The headline aside, this is walking back (slightly) the NATO statement that the soldiers are dead. Officially they remain missing and their status unknown.
How the Hell did they find that vehicle 16’ deep in a peat bog? There had to have been tracks left or some kind of beacon is all I can reckon.
There is a photo of the site. Thumbnail in the preview. Looks treacherous for any vehicle.
What I’m wondering is how they got in that deep.
70 tons is going straight down until it reaches solid ground.
Link What Is The M88 Recovery Vehicle And And When Does The Military Use Them?
Right, exactly, that’s why I’m puzzled. Put an Abrams on any sort of unstable ground, and it’ll go straight to whatever stable ground is underneath it. How steeply can that stable underlayer drop off? I’d expect that if you started driving into a swamp, you’d be a few inches deep into the muck, then a foot, then two feet, and so on. And the point at which it’s so deep that you can’t go any further would be before the tank was completely submerged.
(1) Perhaps they entered at speed
(2) Perhaps there is just enough air in the thing to allow it to drift a bit as it sinks (so its momentum can continue to carry it forward as it sinks)
(3) Perhaps this big has a sharp drop along that edge, not a smooth/gradual drop
(4) But honestly, even if its not like a cliff, perhaps the driver lacked the presence of mind to brake, much less go into reverse, before they either lost consciousness, were forced away from the controls from the inrush of water, and/or the engine failed
Anyway, I’m reminded of an incident in Iraq where a tank was driven past the edge of a bridge, rolled over as it went over the edge, and trapped the crew inside the upside down tank underwater. If they didn’t die on impact, they drowned.
Good point. Stuff does not sink upright in water. Nor in very thin slurry-like mud.
Instead it’ll rotate to whatever orientation makes sense vs buoyancy & drag, But first it’ll be rotating per whatever rotational torques are put on it as the vehicle enters the soft liquidy part of its trip away from dry land. Turning, tumbling, nosing over, etc.
It’s even deeper in the mud today. Maybe the inside is full of mud too? Especially if they were driving with the hatches open.
I’ve dealt with mud and it tends to ooze back into the hole I’m digging. It has to be a nightmare for this recovery operation.
Link 4 U.S. Army soldiers missing in Lithuania: The latest updates
I think that, for a vehicle as dense as a tank, it’s basically irrelevant whether it stayed sealed or filled up with mud.
I feel terrible for their familes. At least now they can grieve and prepare the funerals.
Hopefully the 4th soldier will be found soon.
The Wiki for the M88 Hercules (which is a heavy recovery vehicle, not a classic tank) says that it has a fording depth of 2.3 meters. I could see an inexperienced driver assuming they just hit a wet patch in the bog and thinking they’ll clear it to solid land, until they don’t and it’s too late to do anything about it. It’s 3.12m high so, if you discover you’ve made a mistake at 2.3m and you’re stuck & sinking, you don’t have much grace to correct the situation before you’re submerged.
The fact that one body is not found with the others makes me think one crewmember managed to evac the vehicle and then drowned after getting some small distance from it. Maybe
Or possibly evaced the vehicle and then managed to escape, though that still leaves open the question of why he hasn’t managed to make himself found yet.
Or the person was the vehicle’s TC (tactical commander) and had his hatch open and was moved away from the vehicle as it sank and he was also under the mud.
Or there is a lot of muck down there, and they are having a hell of a time even just searching the interior.