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NATO Mourns 4 US Troops Killed In Lithuania

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

VILNIUS/BRUSSELS/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – The secretary general of the NATO military alliance on Thursday mourned four American soldiers who were killed during a military exercise in Lithuania.

Mark Rutte said, “Our thoughts are with their families, their friends, their colleagues – soldiers – and we have the deepest respect for their service. I also want to highlight the work being done by the U.S., Lithuania, but also Poland, and Estonia to work around the clock, basically, to do everything to make sure that they would be recovered. But again, we are very sad about their death.”

He spoke while standing next to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

Rubio thanked Rutte for the “condolences at the four Americans who tragically lost their lives in an important training exercise.” He stressed that “We honor them, and it also reminds is that the United States is in NATO,” adding that global and domestic media had wrongfully suggested otherwise.

However, Rubio stressed that the dangers in the world underscore that NATO member states, including the United States, must increase defense spending to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

He spoke while elsewhere in Lithuania, political and religious leaders joined thousands of people on Thursday to bid farewell to the four Americans: The Baltic nation’s President Gitanas Nauseda and other dignitaries among those who stood in respect as hearses carried the bodies of the four young Americans to Vilnius airport before being flown to the United States for burial.

TEARFUL ONLOOKERS

The U.S. Army identified the soldiers as Staff Sergeant Troy S. Knutson-Collins, 28, of Battle Creek, Michigan; Staff Sergeant Jose Duenez Jr., 25, of Joliet, Illinois; Staff Sergeant Edvin F. Franco, 25, of Glendale, California; and Private First Class Dante D. Taitano, 21, of Dededo, Guam.

Reporters noticed many onlookers at the solemn farewell ceremony at Cathedral Square in Vilnius, Lithuania, were in tears.

President Nauseda said that the reaction of the population and the military to the disappearance of soldiers was rooted in Lithuania’s difficult history.

Lithuania borders Russia and only gained independence from the Moscow-led Soviet Union in 1990. “For us, it is more than a duty; it is an emotion. We have experienced trials in our history, and therefore, we understand well what loss is, what death is, what honorable duty is,” Nauseda stressed in a speech to those gathered.

Schoolchildren accompanied by teachers waved Lithuanian and U.S. flags to honor the soldiers who died in an accident along NATO’s eastern flank, a region that is on edge due to Russia’s invasion of nearby Ukraine.

The soldiers, part of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, were on a tactical training exercise when they and their vehicle went missing a week ago, the Army explained. Lithuanian, Polish, and U.S. soldiers and rescuers searched through the forests and swamps at the General Silvestras Zukauskas training ground in the town of Pabrade, 6 miles (10 kilometers) west of the border with Belarus. The M88 Hercules armored vehicle was pulled from a peat bog Monday, and the final body was recovered Tuesday.

“I feel sorry for these young men,” said one mourner from the town of Pabrade as he watched the hearses make their way toward the airport. “I live nearby, and I know that swamp. Dangerous places for anyone who enters that area.”