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Some progress made in recovering U.S. Army soldiers submerged in Lithuanian swamp
Military personnel work at the site of a rescue operation for missing U.S. soldiers at Pabradė training ground, in Lithuania, on Friday.
Petras Malukas/AFP via Getty Images
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Petras Malukas/AFP via Getty Images
Scores of soldiers and rescue workers are heading to Lithuania to assist in the recovery efforts of four U.S. Army soldiers whose vehicle has been submerged in a swamp for more than five days.
The soldiers, all part of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart in Georgia, went missing in the early hours of March 25 while on a training mission to recover another Army vehicle.
The incident happened in a training area near Pabradė, a city in eastern Lithuania close to the Belarus border. The vehicle carrying the four soldiers was discovered the next day, buried under a thick layer of mud and water.
Recovery efforts have been complicated by the muddy swampland and massive 70-ton weight of the missing soldiers’ M88 Hercules armored vehicle.
U.S. soldiers attend a Holy Mass at the Cathedral Basilica in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Sunday, for the four U.S. soldiers who went missing.
Mindaugas Kulbis/AP
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Mindaugas Kulbis/AP
In an update, the Army said the vehicle continued to sink into the bog and was about 13 feet below the water’s surface and stuck in more than 6 feet of mud, which U.S. officials have described as clay-like.
“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,” Brig. Gen. John Lloyd, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers North Atlantic Division, said in a statement Sunday.
He added: “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.”
A specialized U.S. Navy dive team, who arrived on site and made an initial dive on Saturday, also had a difficult time navigating the swamp. “Last night, divers were in the water trying to get to the vehicle. We were unable to because of the amount of mud,” Lloyd said.
But on Sunday, the U.S. military said the dive team managed to successfully attach a line to one hoist point on the submerged vehicle. The goal is to hook up a series of hoists in order to pull the vehicle out of the mud.
“This is the first big step towards successfully recovering the vehicle and bringing our Soldiers home,” the U.S. Army Europe and Africa said in a statement. “We expect that process to take some time, as the amount of pressure and suction from the mud will take significant power to overcome.”
Military personnel work at the site of a rescue operation for missing U.S. soldiers at Pabradė training ground, in Lithuania, on Friday.
Petras Malukas/AFP via Getty Images
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Petras Malukas/AFP via Getty Images
Over the past week, rescue crews have been working to remove water and mud from the site using various draining, digging and dredging techniques. The Army said the process has been slow and challenging due to “ground water seepage.” The terrain has been unable to support the heavy equipment required to extract the vehicle.
More than 200 personnel have been involved in the recovery effort, including American and Lithuanian soldiers, Lithuanian authorities, and 55 engineers from the Polish Armed Forces, according to the U.S. military.
The families of the four missing soldiers have been notified and the U.S. military said it is continuing to update the families on the status of search efforts.
“This tragic situation weighs heavily on all of us,” U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, the commanding general of 1st Armored Division, said last week in a statement. “We want everyone to know, we will not stop until our Soldiers are found.”
Lithuanian defense officials prayed for the recovery efforts at a Holy Mass on Sunday, according to the country’s defense ministry.
“Shoulder to shoulder, we stand together until we find missing soldiers,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said on social media on Sunday.
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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack
Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former Army serviceman they accused of distributing instructions on how to build explosives that were used by a man who conducted a deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day last year.
The former serviceman, Jordan A. Derrick, a 40-year-old from Missouri, was charged with one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing explosive materials without a license; one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device; and one count of distributing information relating to manufacturing explosives, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. The three charges together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.
Starting in September 2023, the authorities said, Mr. Derrick was using various social media sites to share videos of himself making explosive materials, including detonators. His videos provided step-by-step instructions, and he often engaged with viewers in comments, sometimes answering their questions about the chemistry behind the explosives.
The authorities said that Mr. Derrick’s videos were downloaded by Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, who was accused of ramming a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, in a terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens. Mr. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police. Before the attack, Mr. Jabbar had placed two explosives on Bourbon Street, the authorities said, but they did not detonate.
The authorities later recovered two laptops and a USB drive in a house that Mr. Jabbar had rented. The USB drive contained several videos created by Mr. Derrick that provided instructions on making explosives. The authorities said the explosives they recovered were consistent with the ones Mr. Derrick had posted about.
Mr. Derrick’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Derrick was a combat engineer in the Army, where he provided personnel and vehicle support, the authorities said. He also helped supervise safety personnel during demolitions and various operations. He was honorably discharged in February 2013.
The authorities did not say whether Mr. Derrick had any communication with Mr. Jabbar, or whether the men had known each other. In some of Mr. Derrick’s videos and comments, he indicated that he was aware that his videos could be misused.
“There are a plethora of uh, moral, you know, entanglements with topics, any topic of teaching explosives, right?” he asked in one video, according to the affidavit. “Of course, the wrong people could get it.”
The authorities also said that an explosion occurred at a private residence in Odessa, Mo., on May 4, and the occupant of the residence told investigators that he had manufactured explosives after watching online tutorials from Mr. Derrick.
Mr. Derrick’s YouTube account had more than 15,000 subscribers and 20 published videos, the affidavit said. He had also posted content on other platforms, including Odysee and Patreon. Some videos were accessible to the public for free, while others required a paid subscription to view.
“My responsibility to my countrymen is to make sure that I serve the function of the Second Amendment to strengthen it,” Mr. Derrick said in one of his videos, according to the affidavit. “This is how I serve my country for real.”
Outside of the income he received through content creation, Mr. Derrick did not have any known employment. He did receive a monthly disability check from Veterans Affairs, the affidavit stated.
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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder
A streamer known for hurling racist slurs in public settings under the nickname “Chud the Builder” was charged with attempted murder after a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse on Wednesday, the authorities said.
The streamer, Dalton Eatherly, 28, was involved in a confrontation with an unidentified man that escalated to gunfire outside the Montgomery County Court in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Both men sustained gunshot wounds and were in stable condition, the office said.
In addition to attempted murder, Mr. Eatherly was charged with employing a firearm during dangerous felony, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s office said.
Mr. Eatherly, who is white, has accumulated an online audience by livestreaming confrontations in which he uses racist language toward Black people in public.
Law enforcement did not provide any details about the second man involved in Wednesday’s shooting. Mr. Eatherly posted an audio recording online of paramedics treating his wounds in which he claims he shot the man in self-defense.
A video posted by the website Clarksville Now shows Mr. Eatherly on a stretcher with a microphone attached to his lapel.
Mr. Eatherly is being held at the Montgomery County Jail, pending arraignment, the sheriff’s office said.
According to court records, Mr. Eatherly was scheduled to appear for a court hearing on Wednesday morning in an unrelated case brought by Midland Credit Management, a collections agency.
A lawyer listed in court records from a separate harassment case in which Mr. Eatherly was a defendant in November did not respond to a request for comment.
On Sunday, three days before the shooting in Clarksville, Mr. Eatherly was arrested in Nashville. According to a police affidavit, Mr. Eatherly live streamed his meal at a restaurant, Bob’s Steak and Chop House, on Saturday even though the restaurant had asked him ahead of time not to do so.
When he was confronted, Mr. Eatherly “became disruptive and started making racial statements, yelling, screaming and otherwise creating a scene,” according to the affidavit.
He then refused to pay for his $370 meal. Mr. Eatherly was charged with theft of services, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was released on $5,000 bond.
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