The body of a fourth soldier of the American army was found on Tuesday in Lithuania, a week after the soldier and three others were missing when the armored vehicle they were driving in a peat bog, said the US military.
The army did not immediately release the name of the fourth soldier, whose body was found one day after the other three soldiers were found dead following a vast international research effort which involved hundreds of Lithuania, United States, Poland and Estonia staff.
The four American soldiers, from the 1st armored brigade combat team, 3rd infantry division, were missing at the beginning of March 25, when they did not return from a training mission in an M88A2 Hercules, a 70 -ton vehicle which is essentially a giant military tow truck.
They had been sent to extract another army vehicle, said the army. But the soldiers may have left the road and in a deep bog, and they seemed to have been trapped inside while the vehicle was flowing, according to an army official in Europe. The US military investigates the cause of the accident.
The rescuers located the vehicle on March 26, but extracting it from the mud proved to be an intimidating engineering challenge. Heavy equipment has been brought to flirt with the peat bog, and divers, dogs and drones – including a radar penetrating on the ground – have been deployed in the recovery effort.
The US military did not announce where the body of the fourth soldier was found, although a senior American army official in Europe said that he had been recovered near the M88. The soldiers were training near Pabrade, a city in eastern Lithuania near the border with Belarus.
The army identified the three soldiers whose bodies were found on Monday as the SGT. Jose Duenez, Jr., 25, from Joliet, ill. ,; Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, from Glendale, California; and pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, from Dededo, Guam. All three were maintenance of the M1 Abrams tank system.
“This loss is simply devastating,” said Major-General Christopher Norrie, the general commander of the third infantry division, in a press release. “These men were soldiers honored by the Marne division. We wrap our arms around families and dear beings of our soldiers for incredibly difficult times. ”
Sergeant Duenez had been in the army for more than seven years and had previously served in Poland and Germany. Sergeant Franco has served in the army for over six years and had already deployed in Korea and Germany. Soldier Taitano had served in the army for almost two years and arrived in Fort Stewart in Georgia, the house of the third infantry division in October 2023.
The American military leaders praised the Lithuanians and others who helped to search for the soldiers.
“I cannot say enough about the support that our Lithuanian allies have provided to us,” said General Christopher Donahue, commander of the US and Africa American army, said in a press release. “We relied on them, and they, alongside our Polish and Estonian allies – and our own sailors, aviators and experts from the Corps of Engineers – allowed us to find and bring our soldiers home.”
Lithuanian leaders highlighted the international recovery effort to highlight the value of NATO allies working together in the midst of an increasing alarm in Lithuania and other Baltic countries that President Trump will weaken the NATO alliance.
On Tuesday, President Gitanas Nasseda of Lithuania, who had visited the accident site, said that the “sincere condolences of the country were going to our American allies and their people”.
“Lithuania prayed for the four disappeared soldiers, and now, with all our hearts, we are holding with their families”, he said on social networks. “We are deeply grateful to all those who have devoted immense efforts to find the remaining soldier in such difficult conditions.”
Eric Schmitt Contributed reports.
