06/13/2007

By JIM VERTUNO  / Associated Press

The body of a soldier who went missing for four days after a solo navigation exercise was recovered in a brushy area within the Army post's training area, but exactly how he died is still under investigation, officials said Wednesday.

The body of Sgt. Lawrence G. Sprader, 25, was found about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday by searchers on foot, said Eddy Howton, Fort Hood's director of emergency services. It was sent to Dallas for an autopsy.

"We are deeply saddened for his family," Howton said. The family did not attend a briefing Wednesday.

Sprader went missing Friday during the exercise testing basic map-reading and navigation skills, prompting a massive search of the rugged exercise area at the sprawling Central Texas post.

Howton said in all 3,000 soldiers and searchers from 14 outside agencies covered about 20,000 acres, an effort that involved people on foot, horseback, ATVs, and even helicopters and a heat-detecting plane.

His body was found near plenty of drinking water from creeks and other sources, said Robert Volk, the chief game warden at Fort Hood, who helped in the search. He said there are predators such as poisonous snakes and mountain lions on the post.

Officials declined to answer questions about whether there were signs of distress that might indicate how Sprader died, saying all that is under investigation.

When commanders reached Sprader on his phone late Friday — the last time anyone spoke to him — he did not indicate he was ill or distressed. But searchers were worried he may have succumbed to the 90-plus degree heat. Sprader was equipped with two canteens, a water backpack and two Meals Ready To Eat.

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

Sprader did not have any known medical conditions, said Lt. Col. Carter Oates, 11th MP Battalion, Commander, Criminal Investigations Division, which is where Sprader was assigned.

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 the 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, said Col. Diane Battaglia, a III Corps spokeswoman at Fort Hood. Reached on his cell phone two hours after the exercise was over, Sprader told commanders he wanted to finish the drill.

"He was a model soldier. He had a goal to succeed," Oates said Wednesday.

No saw or heard from Sprader after that call.

Motorists reported seeing a soldier matching Sprader's description near a road Friday evening. One sighting was on the eastern edge of the post, while another was on the far northern edge, making 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.

The search included re-searching of parts of 15,000-acre training range that includes rugged hills, dense brush, high grass and juniper trees. An aircraft equipped with heat-seeking infrared equipment, often used to track human and drug smugglers, was brought in Tuesday.

Post officials said no other soldier has ever been lost on the heavily-used range long enough to prompt such a massive search.

Sprader returned from an Iraq deployment in September but had no orders for redeployment to the war zone.