By David Lohr
(Continued) "After we, the students, waited a couple of hours, we were ordered to comb the area to try to find Sgt. Sprader. Many who were forced to go out to look for him had already been treated for their heat injuries, and many of us were exhausted from having already gone through the exercise."
After completing an initial search of the area, the soldiers were taken back to the start point, where they were ordered to rest while they waited for food to arrive. By the time the group was reorganized, the sun was setting, so they were provided with chem-lights (glow sticks) and told to go back out and comb the area again.
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| Sgt. Lawrence Sprader |
"The effort was again unsuccessful," Michael said. "We were taken back to the barracks at around 12:30 a.m., and were told to be up at 4:00 a.m. the next morning to look for Sgt. Sprader again. By then, other units became involved in the effort. The next day, we went back to the training site; most of us were hurt and exhausted, some already injured from the intense heat. This went on until Tuesday evening, when they finally found Sgt. Sprader's body."
From the way Michael tells it, it does not sound as though the initial search was taken seriously. In fact, given the condition of the men searching, one has to question whether or not they were in any type of condition to conduct a thorough search in the first place. Regardless, other revelations by Michael are even more disturbing.
"Throughout the ordeal, it became increasingly apparent to us through admissions from the cadre that the priority was not in finding Sgt. Sprader's body but in finding the M-16 that he had been carrying. Apparently, it is much more difficult to write off a weapon as a loss than it is to write off a human being. This fact only demoralized us more with each passing day."
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Hyperthermia, Dehydration Killed Sgt. Lawrence G. Sprader
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