Prosecutor’s Office announces the fate of the four missing US soldiers: death investigation launched, still silence from the services

On March 31 morning, Minister of National Defence Dovilė Šakalienė announced that an M88 armoured personnel carrier had been pulled out of the swamp at the Pabradė training ground at night and stressed that she would not provide any news about the four missing US soldiers, according to lrytas.lt

The Minister reiterated that the Americans would be the first to send a message.

However, on Monday, before noon, the news published by the portal Lrytas on Wednesday that all four missing US soldiers were dead was confirmed by Prosecutor General Nida Grunskienė.

“A pre-trial investigation has been opened to determine the cause of death,” Prosecutor General Nida Grunskienė told Elta at the Seimas on Monday.

Neither Lithuania nor the US military has confirmed this information.

Helicopters, thermal imaging cameras, divers, a large force of soldiers, various technical units, Lithuania’s most powerful dredger, and the help of Polish allies have been deployed in the search for the missing US soldiers.

The caterpillar’s footprints were only later noticed

The search for the four missing soldiers and the M88 armoured personnel carrier started on Tuesday. Initially, different information reached the public: on Wednesday morning, the police bulletin board reported that “3 soldiers and a car” were missing in Pabradė.

It soon became clear that the soldiers were American and that the missing vehicle was not a car but an M88 armoured personnel carrier.

The US Embassy announced that the missing men were from the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division.

The Lithuanian army did not release much information about the search on Wednesday. Representatives of the police and the Fire and Rescue Department (PAGD) immediately referred journalists to the army.

However, by Wednesday evening, it was becoming clear that all four Americans might be dead. However, this information has not been officially confirmed.

On Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte publicly confirmed this information, but his spokeswoman later contradicted him, saying that the Alliance leader was referring to media reports rather than the facts as he knew them.

More information about the situation began to emerge on Thursday when it was decided to allow the media to enter the scene at the Pabradė training ground.

President Gitanas Nausėda and Minister of National Defence Dovilė Šakalienė were present, while the army also showed the swamp where the M88 armoured personnel carrier was being searched for.

“The vehicle cannot be seen from above, and it is difficult to feel it with metal bars. If everything were simple, the Americans would have pulled the armoured vehicle out without asking for our help,” said Lithuanian Army Commander Raimundas Vaikšnoras.

The swamp became a challenge

Track marks leading to a swampy, marshy area detected the possible location of the armoured personnel carrier.

After the recovery of the armoured personnel carrier, images from the Pabradė training ground capturing the movement of equipment and funeral providers

“Initially, this was not pointed out because it was assumed that the soldiers simply could not go there. But after searching the area, it was decided to concentrate on the swamp”, explained Vaikšnoras.

Suspicions that the armoured personnel carrier might have sunk in the swamp were reinforced by the diesel traces observed.

Soldiers and construction companies pumped water out of the swamp and fixed the slopes to reach the sunken armoured personnel carrier.

A body of water adjacent to the emerging swamp made the situation particularly difficult. On Thursday, a dredger was transported from Klaipėda to the Pabradė polygon, but its capacity soon became apparent.

For this reason, the most powerful dredger in Lithuania was delivered to the site on Friday, and the Americans have announced that their divers will take part in the operation.

The Polish military was also reportedly on hand to help with its equipment.

“Overnight, the surface layer of accumulated sludge was pumped out. It can be estimated at up to 3 metres, but visibility in the puddle is still limited. Nothing can be seen through the still muddy water. Pumping of the deeper layer of sludge continues.

Specialist equipment arrives to locate the exact position of the vehicle and its precise position, how it is leaning, whether it is upright, at what angle, etc.

This will help us to determine the actions to be taken during the extraction operation,” said Lieutenant Colonel Aušrius Buikus, Commander of the rescue operation for the missing US troops at the Pabradė training ground on Friday morning.

Raising theories

It is not commented on why the American armoured personnel carrier wandered into the swamp, which is said to be already outside the military training ground.

Powerful units, a helicopter and military SUVs: equipment at the Pabradė training ground

According to Commander Vaikšnoras, the commander organising the exercise decides where the military equipment should go during the exercise.

“There are boundaries of the training ground, there are roads, there are quarter lines – everything is used for the exercise. We can only speculate whether the armoured personnel carrier needed to go there. Maybe not, because it’s a swamp – you must make a judgment. But that is what soldiers are trained for, to assess the situation”, said Vaikšnoras.

The Armed Forces Commander has not yet specified who will be responsible for investigating the accident—Lithuanian or US authorities.

On Friday evening, Arvydas Pocius, who commanded the Lithuanian Armed Forces from 2009 to 2014, described what could have happened to LRT television.

“It could have been either a mistake by the driver of the machine’s mechanic or the machine’s crew commander,” he told LRT TV.

Pocius also said that the crew consisted of exactly four people. Among them is a senior who gives the mechanic driver a task on where to go.

Rumours in the public have suggested that Belarus interfered with the GPS signal and played a role. Still, Darius Antanaitis, a military expert, was sceptical about such rumours, according to Lrytas.

“That they [interference] could happen at all – that’s undoubtedly, but it’s not related to the tragedy,” the military expert said. – Normally, the military uses GPS – but not ordinary GPS, military GPS – but there is always a double-check with the map. Nobody goes blind. If there is a glitch and you see on the screen that there is a glitch, or that you are not where you are – then you turn off the GPS receiver according to procedures, and you go with the map.”

The wife of a missing American soldier spoke

On Friday at 16:00, the Lithuanian Armed Forces closed access to the site of the incident at the Pabradė training ground. The media were allowed to go as far as a special barrier, but no further access was allowed.

The army immediately informed us that the decision was made to move on to the next phase of the operation, where they did not want to have cameras because of the potential for sensitive images.

This decision came a couple of hours after the unexpected news from the US when the wife of one of the soldiers who was on the M88 spoke out.

Speaking to the American show 11 Alive, Georgia Franco immediately dropped the accusations and started raising questions about the fate of her husband Edwin Franco.

She said she had received a message from her husband that he was being sent on a rescue mission at night. At around 7 p.m., he told her that the police had called him. At 7:14 a.m., she received a message from her husband that “they were almost there.”

The presenter, journalist Cody Alcorn, stated that four soldiers stationed in Lithuania had been woken up in the night and sent on a rescue mission, allegedly because the vehicle of another soldier had broken down.

As previously reported by Lrytas, on 11 Alive, Franco was angry that the soldiers were driving alone in an M88 armoured personnel carrier when she said there should have been another crew nearby.

“That’s why we will fight to get answers. We are fighting for justice because our whole life has been turned upside down,” she said.

The Lithuanian army did not react to Franco’s words on Friday.

It may review exercise plans

On Friday evening, army commander Vaikšnoras told LRT TV that a review of the maps of the areas where military exercises are taking place will be considered, as well as limiting certain areas for training.

“The fact that we will review, we might be able to put some restrictions on the maps themselves, both electronic and paper, or mark that this place is different from what the terrain might look like,” Vaikšnoras said.

He also revealed that the area where the American soldiers drowned was marked.

“The signs were there; as I said, there is a gas line. Anyway, there were no cars there, no cars were going there, and it was not a road. However, perhaps for security reasons, we should look at such places and pass on the knowledge to our allies. I think this is a must”, the Chief of Defence stressed.