Fort Hood soldier missing

An unprecedented search and rescue effort continued through the weekend on Fort Hood in an effort to locate a soldier who went missing Friday.

While engaging in a solo navigational mission on a remote section of Fort Hood Friday afternoon, Sgt. Lawrence G. Sprader, 24, lost contact with his command unit. His last contact came at 5 p.m. Friday, indicating he had veered from his designated coordinates. A massive coordinated effort to find the missing soldier has been underway as more than 600 soldiers, more than a dozen ATVs; multiple helicopters, both military and Texas Department of Public Safety, tactical vehicles and bloodhounds from one of the state's correctional facilities continue to comb the remote, rugged terrain of Fort Hood just south of the Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport.

Col. Diane Battaglia, director of the III Corps and Fort Hood Public Affairs Office, said the belief is that Sprader got disoriented and began navigating the course in the wrong direction.

"We think he got disoriented on the course and got misdirected," Battaglia said, adding that she's never heard of a soldier going missing on post before.

Update from local news:

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=16538

By Michelle Roberts
Associated Press Writer

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) – Soldiers searched the sprawling Fort Hood Army base in 90-degree heat for a 25-year-old sergeant who got lost during a navigational training exercise his supervisors said he was determined to finish.

At dawn today, there was still no word on the missing Virginia man, said Col. Diane Battaglia, III Corps spokeswoman at Fort Hood.

Army and civilian teams headed out for a fourth day into the juniper-covered hills of Fort Hood’s training range looking for any trace of Sgt. Lawrence G. Sprader. Two Black Hawk helicopters have scanned the range day and night since late Friday, when Sprader disappeared.

The soldier was two hours overdue from a navigation training drill and apparently did not follow a safety siren used by nine others who also were lost to return to base camp. Battaglia said that when Sprader last spoke to commanders by cell phone he did not indicate that he was sick or distressed, only that he wanted to finish the exercise.

His phone battery has since died and searchers worry he may have succumbed to the heat, dehydration or may be injured.

The searchers, many of whom were Sprader’s classmates in a two-week non-commissioned officer training course, walked roughly 9,500 acres, looking for any sign of him. The training range covers 15,000 acres of trees and high grass.

“There’s a possibility, especially with the heat index, that he probably was seeking shade, which is obviously compounding the search” difficulty, Battaglia said.

Sprader, of Prince George, Va., had two canteens and a water backpack, and because of recent rain, there is surface water scattered on the range, Battaglia said. Health officials told searchers an individual like Sprader could probably survive four days without water.

Battaglia said officials have no reason to believe Sprader intentionally disappeared. Other soldiers saw him on the course during the exercise, and fellow students and commanders said he was a model soldier.

Sad update:

http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=16559

Searchers recover body of missing Fort Hood soldier

FORT HOOD – Searchers found the body late Tuesday of a sergeant who was missing for four days after he disappeared during a training exercise, bringing to a close an intense ground and aerial search, an Army spokeswoman said.

Sgt. Lawrence G. Sprader, 25, went missing Friday during a solo exercise testing basic map-reading and navigation skills.

Col. Diane Battaglia, III Corps spokeswoman at Fort Hood, said Sprader’s remains were found on the rugged Central Texas Army post. The body had been sent for an autopsy and the cause of death had not been determined, she said.

Hundreds of soldiers had scoured the rugged hills of the 15,000-acre training range. The soldiers had covered thousands of acres, walking shoulder-to-shoulder and looking for any sign of Sprader in the high grass or under juniper trees.

An aircraft equipped with heat-seeking infrared equipment, often used to track human and drug smugglers over vast swaths of land, was brought in to make sweeps of the range Tuesday.

Over the weekend, dozens of horse-mounted searchers were used, in addition to all-terrain vehicles and bloodhounds. Helicopters had been flying day and night looking for Sprader since he disappeared.

Sprader, of Prince George, Va., was one of nearly 320 noncommissioned officers being trained as part of a two-week leadership course.

He wasn’t the only soldier who got lost during Friday’s three-hour exercise, but nine others who were disoriented safely got back to the rally point by following the sound of a siren that blasts when time is up, Battaglia said. Reached on his cell phone two hours after the exercise was over, Sprader told commanders he wanted to finish the drill.

No one had seen or heard from him since. Post officials said no other soldier has ever been lost on the heavily-used range long enough to prompt such a massive search.

Battaglia said it had not been determined when Sprader died. She did not have information on whether his body was found within the boundaries of the land-navigation course.

Sprader’s parents had traveled to the military post from Virginia and planned a news conference at Fort Hood on Wednesday. Battaglia said the news conference was still planned, though she hadn’t spoken with Sprader’s parents since his body was found.

The searchers were trying to search 9,000 acres on foot Tuesday _ all the land that hasn’t been searched, plus some other acreage that was being re-searched _ while enduring 90-degree heat, spiders and snakes.

Sgt. Visente Coronado said at least one copperhead was among the large snakes encountered by searchers.

“We’re going through a lot of uneven, thick brush, trying to see if by chance the soldier took shade somewhere and passed out,” said Coronado, 27, of Houston, who was leading a group of searchers that was among the 160 soldiers taken off their regular duty for the search Tuesday.

Motorists reported seeing a soldier matching Sprader’s description near a road Friday evening. The problem for searchers was that one sighting was on the eastern edge of the post, while another was on the far northern edge. That’s made it difficult to concentrate the search in one area, Battaglia said.

The sightings, and his score card from the exercise, had been the last signs of him.
Sprader returned from an Iraq deployment in September and worked in the criminal investigation division of Fort Hood. He had no orders for redeployment to the war zone.

Before his body was found, Battaglia said there was no indication that Sprader would have intentionally taken off. Commanders and relatives said he was a model soldier, and there hadn’t been any activity on his credit cards or bank accounts. His vehicle and residence were untouched. His cell phone, which has a global-positioning chip, was dead, she said.

When commanders reached him on his phone late Friday, Sprader did not indicate he was ill or distressed, but searchers were worried he may have succumbed to the 90-plus degree heat on the Central Texas range.

Snake bites, falls or other injuries were also a concern, and the terrain _ with hills, tall grass and bushy trees that look ceaselessly alike _ is difficult to search.

Sprader was equipped with two canteens, a water backpack and two Meals Ready To Eat. Recent rains mean there are many pockets of surface water scattered on the range.

Health officials told searchers an individual like Sprader could probably survive four days without water even if he ran out.

By The Associated Press

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.