 Complete the following phrase:  During World War I, he was mobilized to the Imperial Russian Army and served in the Romanian Front where he became close friends with Antanas Merkys. This relationship proved crucial in Vitkauskas career. He returned to Lithuania in 1918 and fought in the Lithuanian Wars of Independence. Thanks to Merkys, Vitkauskas became deputy commander of the Lithuanian Military Brigade and commandant of Klaipėda in the aftermath of the 