When Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez of Lawrence and two fellow soldiers were kidnapped in an ambush in Iraq, the military vowed to continue the search for them no matter how grim the discovery.
Yesterday, 14 months later, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed that the remains of Jimenez, 26, and Pvt. Byron Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich., were recovered at a site near Jurf as-Sakhr, south of Baghdad not far from where the ambush occurred.
The parents of Jimenez and Fouty were notified of the discoveries Thursday, but following usual procedure, the Pentagon waited 24 hours until releasing any further details.
In a statement, the Pentagon said special operations forces in Iraq captured someone suspected of knowing where the soldiers were buried. That person led the military to them on July 1.
The body of a third captured soldier, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif., had been found in the Euphrates River 11 days after the May 12, 2007, attack and showed signs of being tortured.
The Department of Defense yesterday offered no further details of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Jimenez and Fouty other than to say they were positively identified through dental records on Wednesday.
"Every combat death is a tragedy, but this has been especially difficult for the families of these two 10th Mountain soldiers because of our not knowing for over a year of their whereabouts," Maj. Gen. Michael Oates, 10th Mountain commander in Fort Drum, N.Y., said in a statement. "We take solace in the fact that they are finally home."
It could be days or weeks before any details are released, Lawrence Veterans Services Director Francisco Urena said.
"They need to reconstruct the timeline of May 12, of what exactly happened," Urena said. "They want a thorough report so there are no questions years from now. ... The family is fully aware of that, and they have patience.
"They'd already been waiting for 14 months," he said.
Jimenez and Fouty were among three members of the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, nicknamed the "Polar Bears," captured by insurgents in an area referred to as the "triangle of death."
Four other soldiers and an Iraqi translator were killed in the attack.
Jimenez and Fouty were missing a total of 424 days.
The bodies were evaluated and flown to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Dover, Del., where military officials are expected to perform further tests to determine a cause and time of death.
Urena said the family expects to receive Jimenez's body in five days.
Jurf as-Sakhr is a small village about 38 miles southwest of Baghdad that sits by the Euphrates River. Jimenez's weapons also had been found near the ambush site in October.
But the military had found Jimenez's and Fouty's identification tags in June 2007 in an al-Qaida safe house in Samarra, more than 75 miles north of where the soldiers were captured.
In November, the Army launched Operation Marine Courageous, a predawn air assault in an area southwest of Baghdad in search of the missing soldiers.
Congresswoman Niki Tsongas, D-Lowell, had testified in the first POW-MIA congressional hearing in a decade on Wednesday, asking Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Ray what was being done to find Jimenez and Fouty since the initial search began.
Ray had answered that the search was "very active."
"The briefings I get indicate that the units on the ground are taking incredible risks in trying to establish their whereabouts," Ray said at the Thursday House Armed Services subcommittee hearing.
An hour later, she heard Jimenez's body had been found.
"It was one of those moments ... to hear almost within an hour that Alex had been found," Tsongas said.
Tsongas' staff, along with the offices of Sens. John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, are working with the family to coordinate all of the necessary arrangements. Tsongas also visited with Jimenez yesterday afternoon.
The family has said they are leaning toward a burial in New York.
Daniel Cotnoir of Lawrence, who was deployed to Iraq in 2004 as a mortuary affairs specialist for the Marines, said there is special care that goes into preparing the bodies of fallen soldiers as they go through several tests in Iraq and the United States.
"There is a phenomenal amount of care given," Cotnoir said. "They work diligently, working through the night sometimes. ... We care as if it's our own brother, and in a manner it is."
Cotnoir said the specialists go through a detailed checklist, documenting any injuries received and personal items before the bodies are ready to be flown to Dover.
"The priority is to make sure it's a smooth process for the family," Cotnoir said. "And believe me, it touches the men and women who do this job."
Jim Wareing of the family support group New England Care for Our Military said his group had a banner for the missing soldiers that read: "Together they serve our nation and together they will come home."
"They did come home together, just not the way we wanted," Wareing said.
