Updated March 31, 2025 at 11:13 AM ET
The bodies of three missing U.S. soldiers have been recovered after an American armored vehicle became submerged in a dense swamp in Lithuania for more than five days, the U.S. military said Monday.
Their identities have been withheld while their next of kin are being notified.
Meanwhile, search and recovery operations continue for a fourth soldier believed to have been in the vehicle.
"We stand in grief with the families and loved ones of these extraordinary 'Dogface Soldiers' during this unimaginable time. But the search isn't finished until everyone is home," Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, 3rd Infantry Division commanding general, said in a statement.
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 have been complicated by the muddy swampland and 70-ton weight of the missing 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 has been a massive undertaking. Before the vehicle was pulled out, the U.S. military said that the submerged vehicle was about 13 feet below the water's surface and stuck in more than 6 feet of mud, which U.S. officials have described as clay-like.
Over the past week, rescue crews have been working to remove water and mud from the site using various draining, digging and dredging techniques. The Army said the process has been slow and challenging due to "ground water seepage." The terrain has been unable to support the heavy equipment required to extract the vehicle.
More than 200 personnel have been involved in the recovery effort, including American and Lithuanian soldiers, Lithuanian authorities, and 55 engineers from the Polish Armed Forces, according to the Army.
"It is highly complex trying to get to the vehicle itself with the terrain out here and where the M88 is sitting in a bog swamp-like area, below the waterline," Brig. Gen. John Lloyd, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers North Atlantic Division, said in a statement Sunday.
He added: "So not only are we dealing with the terrain, a lot of mud that is over top of the vehicle, but also the fact that it's 70 tons that we're trying to recover out of a swamp or bog."
Lithuanian defense officials prayed for the recovery efforts at a Holy Mass on Sunday, according to the country's defense ministry.
"Shoulder to shoulder, we stand together until we find missing soldiers," Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė said on social media on Sunday.
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