The body of the fourth U.S. soldier who vanished along with three others last week in Lithuania was recovered Tuesday, the Army announced, bringing to a close an exhaustive search following the sinking of a 70-ton M88A2 Hercules recovery vehicle into a quagmire of mud and water.
The Army has not released the names of the soldiers pending notification of the next of kin. The bodies of the other three soldiers were recovered Monday.
The four, all members of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, Georgia, had been participating in a relatively routine training exercise near Pabradė, a Lithuanian city close to the border of Belarus -- a staunch Russian ally. The unit deployed there in January as part of the Pentagon's bolstering of NATO's front lines amid Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
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"This past week has been devastating. Today, our hearts bear the weight of an unbearable pain with the loss of our final Dogface Soldier," Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, 3rd Infantry Division commanding general, said in a statement. "Though we have received some closure, the world is darker without them."
The four were on their way to recover a broken-down vehicle in the M88A2, which is effectively a massive tow truck for tanks and other large military vehicles, when they initially went missing last Tuesday as their M88 sank under 15 feet of mud and water in the swamp.
The full details of how the incident occurred remain unclear. But vehicle-related incidents are among the most dangerous parts of military training; much of that is attributed to sleep deprivation during long training exercises and a lack of training to operate heavy military vehicles. The Army saw 153 tactical vehicle accidents between 2010 and 2019 that resulted in a death or significant injury, according to data from the Government Accountability Office.
The recovery of the bodies and the M88 required a complex and labor-intensive operation, drawing in some 200 personnel from the U.S., Polish, Estonian and Lithuanian militaries. The effort included drones, search dogs, Navy divers, ground-penetrating radar, and approximately 70 tons of sand and gravel to create a stable worksite in the swampy terrain.
"I want to personally extend my deepest condolences to the families of all four fallen soldiers," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a statement on the social media site X. "Our hearts are heavy across the Department of Defense. We are deeply grateful to our brave service members who enabled this difficult recovery and to our Lithuanian hosts who labored alongside them."
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