Updated April 01, 2025 at 14:24 PM ET
The body of the fourth and final missing U.S. soldier was recovered on Tuesday, the Army said, after the armored vehicle the soldiers were operating became submerged in a dense swamp in Lithuania.
Their identities have been withheld while their next of kin are being notified.
"This past week has been devastating. Today our hearts bear the weight of an unbearable pain with the loss of our final Dogface Soldier," said Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, the 3rd Infantry Division commanding general, in a statement Tuesday. "Though we have received some closure, the world is darker without them."
The bodies of three of the soldiers were located on Monday as the vehicle was removed from the peat bog after a six-day recovery effort by hundreds of service members from the U.S., Lithuania, Poland and Estonia, as well as members of Lithuanian government and civilian agencies.
The soldiers, all part of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart in Georgia, went missing in the early hours of March 25 while on a training mission to recover another Army vehicle.
The incident happened in a training area near Pabradė, a city in eastern Lithuania close to the Belarus border. The vehicle carrying the four soldiers was discovered the next day, buried under a thick layer of mud and water.
Recovery efforts were complicated by the muddy swampland and 70-ton weight of the soldiers' M88 Hercules armored vehicle.
The first signs of progress took place on Sunday. A U.S. Navy dive team deployed to the recovery operation successfully attached cables to two hoist points on the submerged vehicle with the goal of pulling the vehicle out of the mud, according to the Army.
"The process is projected to take a significant amount of time and effort, as the terrain surrounding the peat bog remains challenging - but the rescue workers will not be deterred," U.S. Army Europe and Africa said in a statement at the time.
The Lithuanian Defense Ministry said Sunday that attaching the first hoist "took hours of diving in complete darkness."
The recovery operation was a massive undertaking. Before the vehicle was pulled out, the U.S. military said it was about 13 feet below the water's surface and stuck in more than 6 feet of mud, which U.S. officials described as clay-like.
Over the past week, rescue crews worked to remove water and mud from the site using various draining, digging and dredging techniques. The Army said the process was slow and challenging due to "ground water seepage." The terrain was unable to support the heavy equipment required to extract the vehicle.
Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, the commanding general of the 1st Armored Division, said in Tuesday's statement that he and others were relieved "to bring this recovery to an end and bring closure to all the Families, friends and teammates of our Soldiers."
He added: "We cannot thank our Allies and fellow service members enough, especially the Lithuanians, who spared no resource in support of this mission. Together, we delivered on our promise to never leave a fallen comrade."
The Army said it was investigating what caused the accident.
NPR's James Doubek contributed reporting.
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