Missing conscripts stay in forest thinking drill still ongoing

Authored by lrt.lt and submitted by Valentine-Venom
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Five soldiers serving in a reconnaissance unit were declared missing during a military exercise on February 4–6. Believing the drill was still in progress, they evaded all forces sent to find them.

Lithuanian Military spokesperson Laimis Bratikas told BNS that during a graduation exam for reconaissance troops in central Lithuania, five soldiers – including conscripts – serving in the Žemaitija Motorised Infantry Brigade were declared missing after failing to show up at a pre-defined location.

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The military decided “to initiate a search for the soldiers, suspecting that something unplanned had happened,” said Bratikas.

Thinking the exercise was still on, the 'missing' soldiers evaded capture by trained dogs and at one point, a helicopter.

They “moved in a forest avoiding contact and without being detected” for 24 hours, said Bratikas. “Military scout training is special, as they are prepped to accomplish their task by staying undetected – in this case, they acted that way until the very end.”

Their ‘survival’ performance was rated exemplary, he added.

FinePassenger8 on July 6th, 2020 at 14:19 UTC »

That reminds me of one time during youth group when a friend and I were hiding during hide and seek. We were in the basement and no one told us the game was over. By the time we emerged, the youth group was over and the youth pastor was locking up the place.

Spade_it_bro on July 6th, 2020 at 12:56 UTC »

“Hey PFC, I didn’t see you at camouflage practice yesterday.”

“Thank you Sergeant!”

footballtrouble on July 6th, 2020 at 12:50 UTC »

When you want to stand out from the competition in your application for the Special Ops