U.S. Navy dive team joins international recovery effort in Lithuania
The underwater construction dive team with U.S. Navy Commander Task Force 68 traveled by air overnight to Rota, Spain, and proceeded to the search location near Pabrade, Lithuania, on Saturday, U.S. Army Europe and Africa announced.
The soldiers last were known to be inside the M88A2 Hercules heavy-equipment recovery vehicle that was located on Wednesday and remains submerged under at least 15 feet of water, clay-like mud and silt, USAEA officials said.
"We've touched base with the Lithuanian divers who have gone in already," U.S. Navy Senior Chief Master Diver Carlos Hernandez said. "We have a good site picture from them and the other boots on the ground."
The dive team will deploy a remotely operated submersible vehicle and use handheld sonar to get a "clear picture of what we can expect down there," Hernandez said.
The dive team's mission is to locate lift points on the sunken vehicle to it can be recovered from the peat bog and is being helped by the arrival of 55 Polish engineers, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineering team on Friday and ongoing support from Lithuania.
"We are going to use every resource available from all our countries to find our missing soldiers," 1st Armored Division Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor said. "We are stronger together as a joint and multinational team, and we will not rest until our soldiers are found."
The Polish engineers are recovery experts and brought 13 vehicles, including three tracked recovery vehicles that are similar to the sunken Hercules, to remove it from the bog.
"We are on standby with armored recovery vehicles, one engineering machine, a water pump and so on," Polish Armed Forced Maj. Mikhail Bebark said. "If there is a need for us, we can bring our equipment and assist with this work here."
The U.S. Army's Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Armored Division, has several helicopters on site, including three CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters, two UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters for medical evacuation, two UH-60M and one UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters for medium-lift capability and command and control.
A recovery team has continued removing water from the site and shoring up the nearby ground to support the heavy equipment needed to remove the sunken armored recovery vehicle from the peat bog.
Lithuanian geologists also arrived Saturday and brought a portable sub-bottom profiler to help map the recovery area.
The search area is located within a military training area near Pabrade and about 6 miles west of the Belarus border with Lithuania.
The U.S. military has not identified the four missing soldiers, NBC News reported.
The families of the missing soldiers have been notified, and 3rd Infantry Division is keeping them informed as the recovery effort continues.
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