Some people wept as the bells of the Cathedral Tower rang. They held US and Lithuanian flags and watched a motorcade with four US troops driving down Gediminas Avenue from Cathedral Square towards Lukiškės Square.
President Gitanas Nausėda, Minister of National Defence Dovilė Šakalienė, Commander of the Armed Forces Raimundas Vaikšnoras and other high-ranking Lithuanian officials, Lithuanian and foreign diplomats, US Ambassador to Lithuania Kara C. McDonald, and Archbishop Metropolitan Gintaras Grušas paid their respects to them.
The casket with the 4 fallen US soldiers was blessed at the Cathedral.
It was a very sensitive moment, with tears in people's eyes.
From the morning, police officers and military police were on duty in the vicinity of Cathedral Square and around Gediminas Avenue, and traffic was also restricted—no cars were allowed.
The dead Americans were seen off by their brothers-in-arms and Lithuanian soldiers. Representatives of foreign countries and diplomats also arrived.
The older woman, Dangira, stopped by the square and could hardly hold back her tears.
„I feel very sorry for the boys. I feel very sorry for them – like my own sons,“ she lamented, adding that Lithuania took very good care of the fallen soldiers. Dangira also paid tribute to Minister Šakalienė.
„Such a tragedy is a tragedy, and it is necessary to come and pay tribute to foreigners. We all mourn very much. I have been watching television all the time. We were still hoping that maybe they were alive... It's just terrible,“ said Marytė, a resident of Vilnius.
She did not want to just watch the farewell on TV, so as long as her „legs are walking,“ she would pay her respects together with everyone in Vilnius.
Residents said they wanted to express their solidarity with the fallen soldiers and to send a clear message to the Allies that Lithuania is a reliable partner and that all the soldiers serving in Lithuania are our soldiers and heroes.
The motorcade with the bodies of the US soldiers moved from Lukiškės Square towards Vilnius Airport. A private farewell ceremony was held there, which was not open to the public or the media.
Afterwards, a US military helicopter will fly the American troops home.
The four US servicemen who died were Edwin Franco (from California), Dante Taitano (from Guam), Jose Duenez (from Illinois) and Troy Collins (from Michigan). The youngest was just 21 years old.
The soldiers were killed during a training exercise at the Pabradė training ground. The search and rescue operation took seven days. The soldiers disappeared together with the M88 armoured personnel carrier last Tuesday.
It soon became apparent that the armoured personnel carrier had sunk in a swamp at the training ground, as the search and rescue operation for it and the four Americans was overwhelmed by the thick layer of mud and the ever-present new challenges.
Hundreds of soldiers and specialists from Lithuania and other countries, divers from the US, various heavy equipment, and Lithuania's most powerful dredger were deployed to pump the mud.
On Sunday, the operation achieved a breakthrough—divers managed to reach a deeply submerged armoured vehicle and attach ropes to it. By Monday morning, the tracked vehicle had been recovered from the swamp.
On Monday evening, the US military confirmed that the bodies of three dead American soldiers had been found in the armoured vehicle. One of the missing men was not there, so the search for him was delayed for another day.
On Tuesday, the US military confirmed that the body of a fourth soldier had been found in the swamp.
An investigation will show why the Americans were in the swamp during the exercise. The Lithuanian Prosecutor General's Office has already opened a pre-trial investigation to determine the cause of the soldiers' deaths, and the US is also investigating.