The Birthplace of Pilot Stasys Girėnas

Vytogala is a birthplace of a pilot Stasys Girėnas, who together with Steponas Darius, in 1933 flew the Atlantic and died near Soldin. S. Girėnas served in the American military aviation, later he attended a flying school and became an experienced pilot.

Stasys Girėnas (Stanislovas Girskis until 1931) was born on October 4, 1893 and was the youngest in a family of 16 children, twelve of which died. After the death of his parents, in 1910, together with his brother Petras,  Stasys moved to the USA. After attending a primary school for three years, he worked as a messenger in a printing shop, and soon learned the trade of a printer. He bought a bicycle, a motorcycle, and later a motor boat that could accommodate 12 people, and used to sail people in Lake Michigan. His attention was quickly drawn to the most modern means of transportation: airplanes. At the beginning of the WW I, in 1917, he tried to volunteer for the aviation unit of the US Army, but was rejected due to poor health. After changing his Lithuanian surname to Stanley Girch, in October went to the neighboring state of Missouri and served as a mechanic at the pilot school for 17 months in a squadron in Texas. He was flown here more than once and finally decided to become a pilot.

After returning to Chicago, he worked for a while in a printing house, then bought a car and worked as a driver. In 1921, he founded a taxi company with other Lithuanians, where he worked as a cashier. However, due to the crisis and increased competition, the company went bankrupt in 1929. While working, in his spare time, he attended an aviation school, which he graduated with honors. In 1931, S. Girėnas won the American Legion Aviation Company’s prize for the most accurate landing with a killed engine. In the same year, he received a transport pilot class license, which gave him the right to transport passengers and goods up to 3,500 pounds in weight. After purchasing his own new PARKS airplane, within three years he trained 52 pilots, including three Lithuanians. He was a modest, serious, hard-working, prudent, not talkative and kind-hearted man, pursuing his goals.

He met S. Darius in 1927. Together they prepared “Lituanica” for the flight; they flew across the Atlantic and perished at Soldin in 1933. The pilots are buried in Kaunas.

In 1988, on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the flight of “Lituanica”, a memorial museum was founded in the preserved barn and the restored Samogitian house, which is now the main part of the museum. At one end of the house there are stands telling about S. Girėnas and S. Darius and their transatlantic flight. The other end of the house is dedicated to an ethnographic exposition. Commemorations of the flight of S. Girėnas and S. Darius across the Atlantic are held here every year, with the participation of aviators, athletes and musicians; cycling and running competitions and other celebrations.