On September 19 Chief of the Defence Staff of Canada General Thomas J. Lawson met with the Canadian Air Contingent deployed at the Šiauliai Air Base of the Lithuanian Air Force to strengthen the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission. During the visit General T. J. Lawson also met with Chief of Defence of Lithuanian Major General Jonas Vytautas Žukas.
During the visit at the Air Base the activity and infrastructure of the facilities, and the continually conducted NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic States were presented to the guest. General T. J. Lawson also reviewed the F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-18 Hornet fighter jets of the Portuguese and Canadian Air Forces respectively that are contributing the current rotation of the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission.
Chief of the Defence Staff of Canada General Thomas J. Lawson visited the Portuguese and Canadian troops and presented decorations. One of the awarded was Sergeant Gitis Jankūnas, a S4 logistic specialist of the Air Base; he was presented with the coin of General Thomas J. Lawson for the excellent service while providing support to the Canadian Air Contingent during its redeployment at the Šiauliai Air Base.
Currently the NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic States is conducted by the Portuguese Air Contingent with six F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets, while the Air Contingent of the Royal Canadian Air Force with four F-18 Hornet fighters is strengthening the mission conducted by Portugal. The current rotation of NATO's Air Policing Mission in the Baltic States took over the duties on September 1.
Photo credits: Alfredas Pliadis
