Celebrated at the Parachute Training Center, in the presence of the Chief of Staff of the General Army Salvatore Farina and the highest civil and military authorities, the 76th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein, one of the most dramatic and at the same time heroic pages of the 2nd World War in which it was born the myth of thunderbolt.
This year was also commemorated the 80 anniversary of the foundation of the first school of Military Parachutism born 24 March 1938 in Castel Benito, called "Camp parachutist school of Libya", which then gave life to the Libyan paratroopers Battalion "Fanti dell ' Air".
With a hugely disadvantageous force relationship, the paratroopers of the thunderbolt they had prepared for defense along a front of 15 kilometers and represented the last defensive bulwark, beyond which the enemy would have spread behind the Italian-German Army.
The repeated attacks of the British, the paratroopers responded with incredible determination and energy, rejecting any attempt to break through and inflicting on the enemy serious losses, at the price of great sacrifices: about 1.100 among dead, wounded and missing. The unexpected resistance, which lasted for a week, forced the British command to suspend any further initiative on that front and to concentrate the offensive effort elsewhere.
The Chief of Staff of the Army General Salvatore Farina during his speech wanted to acknowledge the paratroopers of the thunderbolt "of daily commitment and ability to prepare"And, in thanking him as chief of staff, he added"I tell you I know, the Army, the Defense and even Italy can count on you".
The commander of the thunderbolt, Brigadier General Rodolfo Sganga, highlighted how the thunderbolt is the only unit capable of rapidly projecting large volumes of forces at very short notice and at great distances from the motherland, under conditions of risk in which others are not able to operate, to conduct any type of mission, remarking how this requires the maintenance of higher preparation standards: "to access the Folgore family, each paratrooper must overcome the same selections and the same training process, regardless of gender, age, geographic origin and degree covered ... everyone must know how to do exactly what others can do because the security of one depends on the other."
A testimony to the exceptional reports and results achieved by the paratroopers of the thunderbolt during the recent mission in Lebanon, (the brigade thunderbolt returned to Italy last April) the special guest at the ceremony was the mayor of the City of Tire, certainly the most important reality in the Southern Lebanon operation area of the UNIFIL mission.
Precisely because of the particularity and characteristics of its men, it is constantly engaged, even with small or single specialists, in almost all the international missions in which the Italian Armed Forces are engaged, as well as in operations at national level, such as Safe Roads, to contribute to the security of several sensitive areas of the country and in the relief activities to the population affected by recent natural disasters.
