All four U.S. soldiers who had been at the center of a recovery mission in Lithuania for a week after their armored vehicle sank in a peat bog near the border with Belarus have been found dead, the Army said. The fourth missing soldier’s body was recovered Tuesday, a day after the three other soldiers were found, the Army’s Europe and Africa Command said in a statement.
The soldiers’ identities were being withheld pending notification of their next of kin, the command said. All of the soldiers were assigned to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division and were permanently stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia.
“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, the commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division, said in Tuesday’s statement. “Though we have received some closure, the world is darker without them.”
The soldiers went missing last Tuesday while conducting a mission to repair and tow an immobilized tactical vehicle. The incident is being investigated by the Army and Lithuanian authorities.
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The soldiers’ submerged armored recovery vehicle was found by the Army and Lithuanian authorities Wednesday. The command said the vehicle was removed from a peat bog early Monday morning. In an update from over the weekend, the command said the vehicle was under at least 15 feet of water, clay-like mud and silt.
The command didn’t immediately provide details about the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the fourth soldier. The discovery came after recovery dogs from Lithuania and the nearby country of Estonia joined the search effort, the command said earlier Tuesday. The dogs were placed in a U.S. Navy inflatable boat with the hope of picking up any trace scents from below the surface of the bog.
Hundreds of service members from the Army, Navy and the militaries of Lithuania and Poland helped in the effort to bring the 63-ton M88A2 Hercules armored recovery vehicle to the surface, the command said. Lithuanian civilian agencies also contributed to the effort, with the command calling the unstable ground conditions around the submerged vehicle an “engineering challenge.”
“I can’t say enough about the support our Lithuanian Allies have provided us,” Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said in Tuesday’s statement. “We have leaned on them, and they, alongside our Polish and Estonian Allies — and our own Sailors, Airmen and experts from the Corps of Engineers — have enabled us to find and bring home our Soldiers. This is a tragic event, but it reinforces what it means to have Allies and friends.”
Excavators, pumps and several hundred tons of gravel and earth were moved to the search area near Pabradė, close to the Lithuania-Belarus border, to pull up the vehicle.
Norrie said in a statement Monday that the soldiers who died in the incident were family.
“Our hearts are heavy with a sorrow that echoes across the whole Marne Division, both forward and at home,” Norrie said. “We stand in grief with the families and loved ones of these extraordinary ‘Dogface Soldiers’ during this unimaginable time.”
Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda expressed his condolences to President Trump and the U.S. on social media.
“@realDonaldTrump, Lithuania mourns together with the American nation,” Nausėda said on social platform X. “Please accept my heartfelt condolences, as well as those of the Lithuanian people, to you, the loved ones of those who lost their lives, and all the people of the United States of America. During this difficult time, our thoughts and prayers are with you.”
Where is Lithuania located?
Lithuania is located northwest of Belarus, the country led by Alexander Lukashenko, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Lithuania, like its northern neighbor Latvia, joined NATO in 2004. Southwest of Lithuania are the Russian province of Kaliningrad and Poland, another NATO member.
The Baltic Sea is located to the west of Lithuania.
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