Cnn
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The bodies of three of the four American soldiers who were missing after their vehicle was overwhelmed in a peat bog in Lithuania last week was recovered, the army announced on Monday. The vehicle was also recovered.
“The soldiers we lost in this tragedy were not only soldiers – they were part of our family. Our hearts are heavy with pain that resonates throughout the Marne division, both in front and at home,” said major -general Christopher Norrie, commanding the general of the 3rd infantry division, in a press release.
“We hold out in sorrow with families and relatives of these extraordinary” Dog Surface soldiers “during this unimaginable period. But research is not over until everyone is at home. Words cannot express our gratitude to those who still work 24 hours a day during these research and recovery efforts and your unwavering commitment not to rest until everything is found. ”
Research and recovery operations continue to find the fourth soldier, according to the press release.
The four soldiers were assigned to the 1st armored brigade, the 3rd infantry division of Fort Stewart, in Georgia. Their identities are underway until their families are warned.
Lithuania President Gitanas Nausėda said his country is crying for the loss of soldiers.
“Lithuania cries with the American nation. Please accept my sincere condolences, as well as those of the Lithuanian people, for you, those close to those who have lost their lives, and all the inhabitants of the United States of America. During this difficult period, our thoughts and our prayers are with you,” he said in a tweet that labeled President Donald Trump.
The soldiers and the vehicle, an M88 Hercules, have been missing since early in the morning of March 25 when they carried out a maintenance training mission, recovering another American vehicle in a training area in Lithuania. The M88 was found on the morning of March 26; US military and partners work 24 hours a day to remove the vehicle from nearly 70 tonnes from the peat bog.
The recovery effort involved “huge resources from Lithuania”, as well as “hundreds of military from the American army, the American navy, the Lithuanian armed forces and the Polish armed forces – as well as other elements of the Lithuanian government and civil agencies”.
Indeed, other civil servants have indicated the recovery operation as an excellent example of the importance of relations with the American allies abroad – a position which has been tense in recent weeks while the officials of the Trump administration have invaded the partner nations for not having done enough, largely with regard to the war in Ukraine and NATO.
An army official told CNN that the troops on the ground “see things that others may not” concern work with allies, and that the operation of the last -day recovery has done so.
“For us, it is politics, it is not our bailiwick. … For those who say that our allies are not doing enough, these are people who have not seen this,” said the official. “These are people who did not pay attention to this, who did not look. For all of us soldiers, I think that if I was me that in Lithuania is the country, I would like to help get back home to my family. ”
After finding the submerged vehicle, Lithuanian divers were on the scene “very quickly,” Major Nicholas Chopp, American army spokesman in Europe and Africa told CNN. Poland has also started to mobilize dozens of engineers and sappers, or combat engineers.
“There was literally the Defense Head against the Defense Head of Conversations between Lithuania and Poland” to coordinate support, said Chopp. He added that the Lithuanian Minister of Defense and the Prime Minister was on the ground on the recovery site almost every day, if not daily, to “come and talk to rescuers on the ground and say:” What do you need that you do not have? ” »»
“It was an entire country leaning over these efforts,” he said.
The army release said on Monday that Lithuania had provided helicopters, drones, fixed sail planes and research and rescue staff, as well as excavators, pumps to get out of the water from the peat bog, various technical experts and “other heavy construction equipment”. The army official said that Lithuania had not asked to be reimbursed for their efforts in the recovery, saying that everything they had done “is out of the pocket”.
Monday’s press release also said that the Metropolitan Archbishop of Vilnius “led a mass at the Basilica of the Cathedral of Saint-Stanislaus and St. Ladislaus de Vilnius, on March 30, to pray for the four soldiers, their families and those who carry out recovery operations.”
Colonel Martin O’Donnell, spokesperson for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, told CNN that the Allies helped the allies is “what an alliance is.
“(NATO) and these allies have done and continue to do everything they can to recover the missing soldiers from America,” said O’Donnell. “As the Lithuanian Minister of Defense said it earlier this week:” Like America does not leave, we don’t leave ours either. “”
Jennifer Hansler of CNN contributed to this report.