Permanently stationed at Fort Stewart in Georgia, United States, four male U.S. Army soldiers went missing while conducting a mission to repair and tow an immobilized tactical vehicle in Lithuania on March 25, 2025. They were part of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.
The four soldiers were on a tactical training exercise. On March 26, 2025, their armored M88 Hercules vehicle was found submerged in 15 feet of water.
On March 30, 2025, divers reached the vehicle and attached steel cables so it could be pulled out. Armed forces and authorities from Lithuania and Poland dug the vehicle out of a peat bog at the Gen. Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in Pabradė, Švenčionys, Vilnius County, Lithuania.
On March 31, 2025, three of them were found dead. They were Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam, USA, Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California, USA and Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois, USA.
Taitano was a private first class while both Duenez and Franco were sergeants. They were all M1 Abrams tank system maintainers.
On April 1, 2025, the fourth missing soldier was also found dead. His identity is being withheld pending confirmation of notification of next of kin.
The mission in Lithuania was Taitano’s first deployment. Franco deployed to South Korea in 2020 and Germany in 2022 and Duenez deployed to Poland in 2021 and Germany in 2022.
CONAN Daily 