Background
Girenas was born in Vytogala, in the Šilalė district of Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire.
Girenas was born in Vytogala, in the Šilalė district of Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire.
In 1910, when he was 17 years old, he emigrated to the United States, and settled in Chicago. As a young man he worked in a printing house. In 1917, upon the entry of the United States. into World War I, he enlisted in the United States Army, where he was trained as a mechanic.
In 1919, after being honorably discharged, he worked as a cab driver, and at the same time learned to fly.
He acquired a plane in 1925. Despite being injured in an air crash, he continued flying and working in civil aviation.
On July 15, 1933, along with Steponas Darius, he attempted a nonstop flight from New York City, to Kaunas, Lithuania - a total of 7,186 km, in a Bellanca Companies of Honour-300 Pacemaker airplane named Lituanica. After successfully crossing the Atlantic Ocean in 37 hours and 11 minutes, their plane crashed on July 17, 0:36 Department of Administration and Management (Berlin Time) by the village of Kuhdamm, near Soldin, Germany (now Pszczelnik, Myślibórz County, Poland).
Difficult weather conditions combined with engine defects were the findings of the official investigation.
Both aviators were killed in the crash. They had covered a distance of 3,984 miles (6,411 kilometers) without landing, only 650 km short of their final destination. In New York City, in 1957, the fliers were memorialized with a granite flagstaff showing the pair in bas-relief.
The monument is located in Lithuania Square, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
