A 19-year-old American servicewoman has been identified as the second U.S. soldier recovered dead following the disappearance of two military personnel near a cliff during a training exercise in Morocco, closing a chapter that mobilized one of the largest search operations in recent memory along the North African coast.
The U.S. Army named her as Specialist Mariyah Symone Collington, an air and missile defense crew member in an artillery regiment, whose remains were retrieved on Tuesday from a coastal cave approximately 500 metres (550 yards) from where she and 1st Lieutenant Kendrick Lamont Key Jr. were last seen near Cap Draa. Key Jr. had been found earlier, on May 9, while Collington’s recovery was confirmed by both the U.S. Army and Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces on Wednesday. Both bodies were en route to the United States aboard a military aircraft by that same day.
Finding them required a vast and painstaking effort. More than 1,000 U.S. and Moroccan military and civilian personnel took part in the search, covering an area of more than 21,300 square kilometres (8,200 square miles) of rugged Moroccan coastal terrain — a testament to the difficulty of the operation and the harsh environment in which the soldiers went missing.
The two had been taking part in African Lion, the U.S. Africa Command’s (AFRICOM) largest annual joint exercise, which draws together American forces, NATO allies and African partner nations. The exercise is centered primarily in Morocco, where approximately 5,000 personnel from more than 40 countries are currently deployed.
The loss of Collington and Key Jr. has prompted sober reflection on the risks inherent in large-scale field exercises conducted in demanding natural environments. African Lion is designed to build military cohesion and reinforce security ties across the Atlantic alliance and the African continent — objectives that now carry a heavier human cost as both soldiers are brought home.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah