April 21, Chief of Defence of Lithuania Maj. Gen. Arvydas Pocius will go to Warsaw to pay tribute to the killed Chief of the General Staff (Chief of Defence) Gen. Franciszek Gągor and the rest of leadership of the Polish Armed Forces who died in a plane crash near Smolensk. Lithuanian CHOD will be accompanied by Defence Attaché of Lithuania to Poland Col. Eugenijus Vosylius.
Maj. Gen. A. Pocius by his visit will express respect for the late counterparts and to once again offer sympathy of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. The holy mass for the killed Chief of General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces will be said on Wednesday at the Church of the Gracious Mother of God of Warsaw, and the funeral will proceed in the military cemetery.
According to the most recent data remains of Commanders of the Operational Command, Naval Force, Air Force, Special Operations Forces and the Warsaw Garrison have not been identified yet. Commanders of the Lithuanian Armed Forces expressed sympathies for commanding staffs of respective forces.
„Preparations were underway for the Gen. F. Gągor's visit in Lithuania scheduled for mid-May. A sabre was made to be presented to the late General in sign of major respect for brotherly relations between the Lithuanian and Polish Armed Forces," said Maj. Gen. A. Pocius. „I will deliver this debt for remembrance during the soonest visit to Poland."
About Gen. F. Gągor
A. Gągor was born in 1951.
He graduated from the Mechanised Infantry Officer College in Wrocław and held an MA in English philology from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, in 1998 A. Gągor earned a Ph.D. in military science from the National Defence University in Warsaw. The General also graduated from the NATO Defense College in Rome and the National War College of the National Defense University in Washington, DC.
Gen. A. Gągor held various positions of authority in the 2nd Tank Regiment, 10th Armoured Division in Opole, areas of military training and international military relations and international staffs; he also served with the UN and NATO's multinational peacekeeping and other types of military operations. In the period of 2003-2006 Gen. F. Gągor was deployed to the UN peacekeeping operations as well as NATO's and the EU military institutions holding posts of the top level of command: in 2003 Force Commander of UNIKOM, Iraq, in 2003-2004 Force Commander of UNDOF, Syria, in 2004-2006 Polish Military Representative to NATO and EU Military Committees in Brussels. In 2006General Gagor assumed the position of the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces. After three years he was reappointed to a second term at the highest post in the Polish military.
PR Officer of the Chief of Defence Capt. Tomas Balkus, office phone 00370 5 278 5091, cell phone 00370 682 25 359
Picture by Loreta Keršytė (MoND)
