28 March 1923 ...

(To Andrea Troncone)
29/03/18

When this article is published, the day of the 95 ° Aeronautics birthday will have already passed: it is not a delay. It is giving way to a Lady who can not come second to the celebration of her birthday.

95 years are few and they are many.

Few, for the evolution that has been able to do since it was an Army rib.

So many, because it means having at least 3 complete generations of Italians protected from the sky.

Today the Air Force is an international excellence, and by saying this I am not referring to the Frecce Tricolori the talk of the average Italian at the "BAR Sport" or of our service astronauts from TG1 (obviously Loro is an international excellence), but to the entire armed force.

An example for all, the transformation of the entire training process of the pilots of the whole NATO, which goes well beyond the only training, but which has led to an extraordinary collaboration with industry and scientific research and which is today a model even for the Americans who, since the post-war period, have technologically kept the entire West (and we Italians, in particular, until a few years ago).

Someone will have also noticed the effort of transformation of the entire operational set-up, with means like the ones we have also written in these years, ranging from W139 to F35, M-346, through Eurofighter and Predator, the KC-767 A tanks and the Gulfstream G550 CAEW. But I still mentioned only a short list of things that more or less know each other as very visible (at least at the media level) and limiting oneself to this would be to make ungrateful to everything that is not seen and that allows its activities: radar , logistics, or departments ranging from the Incursor to the former "VAM", from the Commissariat to Aerospace Medicine, from the Meteorological Service to the Experimental Flight Department and all the activities of the Service Role.

Activities often invisible, but without which all those aircraft would be on the ground, just as the activities of the entire NATO air component in the Mediterranean basin would stop.

A transformation (or rather, an incessant progress) occurred in times of economic crisis and subsequent cuts in defense as well as a widespread anti-militarist populist mood. So practically a miracle, given the constant operational commitment in which it is involved and consequent adjustments not directly related to the defense of the national airspace.

How many millions of people have been defended in this long period that has seen us go through two world wars, a "cold war", natural calamities made up of devastating earthquakes and fires? And who knows how many other threats we haven't even noticed ...

I wanted to emphasize this aspect, because the Air Force (as well as all the Armed Forces, but it's your birthday what we are celebrating) is made of PEOPLE.

They appear cold and detached in their beautiful uniforms and often their polite confidentiality, in obedience to which they are subject at any level, exposes them to jokes and other demonstrations of ingratitude from which they can not defend themselves. But they are human beings, who differ from the civilian population by having been trained from every point of view to levels of unthinkable professionalism and ethics, TODAY, in the civilized world.

What is the secret of this eternal youth? Never having lost all those ancient values ​​that are summarized in the oath made, in not having shirked from having to face great sacrifices and from having to lavish a constant commitment at the highest levels.

In the rotation of those 3 generations of Italians we have mentioned, all this has been lost. Consequently, the desire to appreciate the moments of meeting with theBlue Weapon and the Armed Forces in general.

Today, in fact, the main fulfillment of humanity seems to be the stuffing of the most varied social media of arrogant and pedantic positions, in which they are all able to speak and speak as if they were more competent than the best representatives of an armed force. And unfortunately in the activities of this Armed Force accidents can occur, which never go unnoticed and which fill every "media" with voyeurisitic curiosity.

This journalist likes to go against the current, and not to be less in this tradition I want to remember what would be censored elsewhere in the name of mediaticism: the sacrifice of the cap. Orlandi, last September at the Terracina event. The Air Force MUST continue to proudly and proudly bring your best representatives to meet the Italian people, as well as every other department, no less than the Frecce Tricolori.

The Air Force can and must celebrate this and a thousand other birthdays with pride and pride, remembering that your fallen are an example of the Italian people, not a danger nor a waste of resources.

Happy birthday!

(photo: Aeronautica Militare / US Air Force)