Connect with us

News

Some progress made in recovering U.S. Army soldiers submerged in Lithuanian swamp

Published

on

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


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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 for the four U.S. soldiers who went missing during exercises conducted by the United States at the Pabrade training ground, at the Cathedral Basilica in Vilnius, Lithuania on Sunday.

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


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

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.”

Advertisement

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 US soldiers at Pabrade training ground, in Lithuania, on March 28.

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


hide caption

Advertisement

toggle caption

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

News

Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Published

on

Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Donald Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees were notified of their terminations via email from ​the White House presidential personnel office.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, seen by Reuters, said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

Advertisement

“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

The 2002 law that established the commission, the Help America Vote Act, states the president can appoint replacements to the commission.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission.

Reuters contributed reporting

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Published

on

Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn (left) walks with his attorney Norman Eisen to speak to reporters and protesters gathered after his arraignment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

Finn Gomez/Getty Images


hide caption



toggle caption

Advertisement

Finn Gomez/Getty Images

Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors charged Hearn with a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn has previously claimed, which his attorneys repeated during a short press conference outside the court, that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity.

Advertisement

The Trump administration had just completed a $14 million renovation of the pool.

But shortly after the work finished, peeling paint and algae gathered in the water. The remodel has been largely criticized as a massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars.

Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside of court following the hearing. He said the administration is using Hearn as a “scapegoat … for their own failures.”

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said.

Advertisement

Prosecutors say there is a host of evidence against Hearn.

This is a developing story.

Continue Reading

News

Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Published

on

Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

Advertisement

Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

Advertisement

The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending