Body of second missing US soldier recovered in Morocco

US Soldiers assigned to 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Mobile Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), kneel behind a berm as Royal Moroccan Armed Forces soldiers in M13 Armored Personnel Carriers advance down range during an African Lion 26 counterattack lane at Cap Draa, Tan-Tan, Morocco, May 4, 2026. (US Army)

• The largest part of the exercise takes place in Morocco, involving approximately ​5,000 personnel from ​more than 40 countries, according to AFRICOM

A search and rescue team has recovered the body of a ​second US service member who went missing near a cliff during a training exercise near Cap Draa, Morocco, the US Army and Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces said on Wednesday.
US and Moroccan searchers found and retrieved the remains of ‌a US ‌service woman on ​Tuesday ‌from ⁠a ​coastal cave roughly ⁠500 meters (550 yards) from where the two soldiers went missing, the US Army said in a statement.
The Army identified her as Specialist Mariyah Symone Collington, 19, an air and missile defense ⁠crew member in an artillery regiment.
The body of ‌the other soldier, 1st ​Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key ‌Jr., was recovered on May 9.
More than 1,000 US and Moroccan military and civilian personnel took part in the search, the Army said, covering an area of more ‌than 21,300 square kilometers (8,200 square miles).
The bodies of Collington ⁠and ⁠Key Jr. were being returned to the US aboard a military plane as of Wednesday.
The US service members were participating in African Lion, the US Africa Command’s (AFRICOM) largest joint exercise between US forces, NATO allies and African partner nations.
The largest part of the exercise takes place in Morocco, involving approximately ​5,000 personnel from ​more than 40 countries, according to AFRICOM.