Soldier missing five days at Texas base

FORT HOOD, Texas, June 12 (UPI) -- The search for a U.S. Army sergeant who disappeared during a wilderness training exercise Friday at Fort Hood, Texas, entered its fifth day Tuesday.

Fort Hood officials said Sgt. Lawrence Sprader, 25, could be anywhere in a remote 15,000-acre area of the post. Searchers on foot, and air crews covered about 8,000 acres over the weekend and covered another 1,600 Monday.

Sprader was among about 300 soldiers sent on the training mission midday Friday in which the troops were to navigate directions and check in at four points during the next six hours. He checked in at two, but apparently became lost and used his cell phone to tell his superiors he wanted to finish on his own.

His phone battery then went dead and a search was launched, the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman reported Tuesday.

Army spokeswoman Col. Diane Battaglia said the search would continue.

"We have no reason to believe that Sergeant Sprader has gone AWOL," Battaglia told the newspaper. "All accounts from his record show that he has good leadership skills."