U.S. Army Sgt. Jose Gonzalez, a seaman with the 504th Transportation Detachment assigned to the U.S. Army Vessel Charles P. Gross, assists in search and rescue operations off the coast of Tan-Tan, Morocco, May 4, 2026. (Kevin Henderson/U.S. Army)
A U.S. military contingent will remain in Morocco to continue searching for two soldiers who went missing May 2 near an oceanside cliff at a training area during a major exercise that ended Friday, a military spokesman said.
The search for the two U.S. soldiers has covered more than 4,600 square miles of sea and coastal area, said Col. Alex C. Tignor, a spokesman for the Army’s Southern European Task Force, Africa, in an email Saturday.
Search teams are adding nearly 1,200 square miles a day as the search area expands westward based on ocean current modeling, Tignor said.
The U.S. launched the search a week ago, with help from Morocco, France and other partners, after the soldiers were reported missing at Cap Draa Training Area, along Morocco’s southwestern coast, where the Sahara Desert meets the Atlantic Ocean.
The soldiers were off-duty at the time they went missing and among thousands of international personnel taking part in African Lion, U.S. Africa Command’s largest annual exercise. The Southern European Task Force, Africa leads the drills, which were hosted in four African countries, including Tunisia, Ghana and Senegal.
U.S. Army Sgt 1st Class Clara Alderman and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Kelly Bresley communicate with local search and rescue teams to assist in search efforts off the coast of Tan-Tan, Morocco, May 4, 2026. (Kevin Henderson/U.S. Army)
As the exercise pivoted to a real-world search-and-rescue mission, troops used some of the technologies being tested during the drills, including artificial intelligence.
“A combined joint task force converged air, land, and sea assets while integrating AI and unmanned systems from more than ten distinct participating vendors,” Tignor said.
The AI system helped officials process huge volumes of search data from military sensors on drones, boats and even jet skis, CBS News reported from Agadir, Morocco.
“We’re using every combined joint asset we have at our disposal,” Army Lt. Col. Ramone Leonguerrero told the TV network’s news team at the command and control center for the search.
Details of how the soldiers went missing and initial rescue attempts have emerged gradually, mostly through anonymous sources, and some details appear to contradict.
At least one of the soldiers was believed to have fallen off a cliff into the surf below during a sunset hike, at which point others hiking nearby attempted to form a human chain to rescue their comrade.
The chain failed, and one or two would-be rescuers were either knocked into the ocean by a wave or jumped in to try to continue the rescue. It was not clear whether the missing soldiers were both attempted rescuers or a rescuer and the original fall victim.
The ensuing search effort involved U.S. and Moroccan helicopters and surveillance drones, French and Moroccan navy frigates, and Moroccan mountaineers and divers, a defense official said Tuesday.
Air Force, Marine Corps and Army units, including Special Forces and the Vicenza-based 173rd Airborne Brigade, took part in the search along with several Moroccan units, an official told Stars and Stripes earlier this week, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the operation.
The military withheld the unit of the missing service members while an investigation and search-and-rescue operation continued, said another U.S. official who spoke to Stars and Stripes last weekend, also on condition of anonymity.
Some 5,000 personnel from more than 40 countries, including NATO allies, were expected to take part in the Morocco phase of the drills.
Though the exercise ended Friday, Tignor said a remaining contingent will continue overseeing command-and-control operations for the search.
“We are extremely grateful to our Moroccan partners for their continued efforts,” Tignor said.
