R.I.P. - Four U.S. Soldiers Who Died In Lithuania Training Exercise

Near NATO’s eastern border recovered, being repatriated.
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) – Lithuania’s political and religious leaders joined thousands of people on Thursday to bid farewell to four American soldiers who died during a training exercise in the Baltic nation.
President Gitanas Nauseda and other dignitaries were among those who stood in respect as hearses carried the bodies of the four young Americans to Vilnius airport before being flown to the United States for burial.
“For us, it is more than a duty, it is an emotion. We have experienced trials in our history and therefore we understand well what loss is, what death is, what honourable duty is,” Nauseda said in a speech to those gathered.
Schoolchildren accompanied by teachers waved Lithuanian and U.S. flags to honor the soldiers, who died in an accident along NATO’s eastern flank, a region that is on edge due to Russia’s aggression in nearby Ukraine.
The soldiers, part of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, were on a tactical training exercise when they and their vehicle went missing a week ago, the Army said.
Lithuanian, Polish and U.S. soldiers and rescuers searched through the forests and swamps at the Gen. Silvestras Zukauskas training ground in the town of Pabrade, 6 miles (10 kilometers) west of the border with Belarus. The M88 Hercules armored vehicle was pulled from a peat bog Monday and the final body was recovered Tuesday.
“I feel sorry for these young men,” said one mourner from the town of Pabrade as he watched the hearses make their way towards the airport. “I live nearby, and I know that swamp. Dangerous places for anyone who enters that area.”
The U.S. Army has identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Troy S. Knutson-Collins, 28, of Battle Creek, Michigan; Staff Sgt. Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois; Staff Sgt. Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California; and Pfc. Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam.
About 3,500 soldiers from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team deployed in January to Poland and the Baltic states for a nine-month rotation as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which supports NATO allies and partners following Russia´s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

A few pictures from the excavation / recovery site in Lithuania.

R.I.P. - American Soldiers Who Were In An M88A2 VTR

R.I.P.

3 of the 4 soldiers have been found deceased.
Three U.S. soldiers who had been at the center of a recovery mission in Lithuania for nearly a week after their armored vehicle sank in a body of water were found dead Monday, the Army said. Efforts were continuing to find the fourth soldier.
The soldiers' identities were being withheld pending notification of their next of kin, the Army said in a statement Monday. The three soldiers found Monday were assigned to the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division and were permanently stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia.
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.
The soldiers' submerged armored recovery vehicle was found by the Army and Lithuanian authorities Wednesday. The Army said the vehicle was removed from a peat bog early Monday morning. In an update from over the weekend, the Army said the vehicle was under at least 15 feet of water, clay-like mud and silt.
Hundreds of service members from the Army, U.S. 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 Army said. Lithuanian civilian agencies also contributed to the effort, with the Army calling the unstable ground conditions around the submerged vehicle an "engineering challenge."
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.
Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, the commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division, 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."
Norrie said searchers were working around the clock looking for the fourth soldier.
Navy divers were gridding out the area around the peat bog to conduct a systematic search, the Army said.
Lithuania's President Gitanas Nausėda expressed his condolences to President Trump and the U.S. on social media.

 

M88A2 HERCULES (Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lifting Extraction System) 63.5 Tons