The search for the four missing US Army soldiers in Lithuania during training has come to a tragic conclusion.

On the afternoon of April 1st, the body of the final soldier was recovered, as reported by the U.S. Army Europe and Africa command.

The soldiers had gone missing on the morning of March 25th while carrying out a mission at the Pabradė training range. They were tasked with repairing and towing a disabled vehicle using their M88A2 Hercules armored recovery vehicle.

The vehicle, weighing over 60 tons, sank in the swamp to a depth of several meters.

The search for the soldiers and the recovery of the vehicle involved hundreds of rescuers from the US Army, aviation, and the armed forces of Lithuania, Poland, and Estonia, with the support of the Lithuanian government and civilian organizations.

On the morning of March 31, the rescue operation managed to recover the American M88A2 Hercules.

A few hours later, the American command announced that the bodies of three of the four missing soldiers had been found.

Search Difficulties

To extract the vehicle from the swamp, U.S. Navy divers had to navigate through thick layers of mud, clay, and sediment in zero-visibility conditions. They hooked the sunken armored recovery vehicle with steel cables, which were attached to two similar M88A2 vehicles and several bulldozers.

The operation was complicated by the terrain, which was very wet and swampy, preventing the use of heavy equipment without additional engineering solutions. The process of draining the area proceeded slowly due to the constant seepage of groundwater.

General Remigijus Baltrėnas, commander of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Defense Staff, stated that the body of the fourth American soldier was discovered in the swamp near the location where the armored recovery vehicle and other US soldiers had been recovered, as reported by Polskie Radio.

The fallen soldiers were part of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, and were participating in scheduled tactical exercises near the town of Pabradė, located about 10 kilometers from the Lithuanian-Belarusian border.

The US Army is investigating the causes of the incident. In a press release, the command stated that they would provide updates on the investigation as new information becomes available.