"Every day you learn something more about this beautiful country and its people”- is one of the first comments from Lebanon by General Rodolfo Sganga, Aquila 1 of the brigade thunderbolt, through the facebook profile.
From the 12 October the brigade thunderbolt he is in the Land of the Cedars with responsibility for the western sector of the Unifil mission in Shama, for the Leonte operation.
We speak of highly specialized people, so we do not improvise and the departures of the contingents are prepared months before, leaving nothing to chance, but knowing that we will bring with them a wealth of experience and professionalism, as well as their own history of the Corps, of belonging.
The Commander Sganga this concept has often reiterated, even last 6 October on the occasion of the celebration of the thunderbolt and of the memory of the battles of El Alamein, ahead of time precisely for the imminent departure of the brigade for Lebanon.
"October 23 recalls the 75 anniversary of the battle of El Alamein, a sacred date for paratroopers", Explained Aquila 1. " It is precisely the sacredness of the event that prompted me to decide to celebrate it today, in advance of the scheduled date and before the Folgore takes sides in various operational theaters. The alternative would have been not to commemorate it, because the 23 October will already be in Lebanon. Instead we want and we must remember and honor those who are no longer among us, those who have fallen for an ideal, those who have offered to the homeland and to their unity the most precious and precious possession they possessed to fulfill the assigned task. We of the Folgore will never stop looking at our fallen as a source of inspiration to do our duty". Inspiration and mission in the various operational theaters, clarified in the crowded El Alamein square of the Gamerra barracks in Pisa, where the CAPAR is and therefore the parent company of the paratroopers, and also in the press conference, present the commander of the Friuli division, General Carlo Lamanna.
"I like to point out that the Folgore has recently distinguished itself in Libya as the only military component deployed in that theater"Sganga recalled.
"Today the Folgore paratroopers brigade is about to be used again in operations. Lebanon is waiting for us, but also Kosovo, with Somalia, Iraq, Mali and Djibouti being smaller. The first contingent to start is the one destined to Lebanon, a very special operating theater, where the ability to limit the use of force is much more important than knowing how to use it indiscriminately.
In an operating environment characterized by a delicate situation, by a balance of precarious forces, the paratrooper will be asked to make decisions independently, anticipating the effects that these decisions will produce. Every man in the patrol will be called upon to associate with the local population of eighteen different religious confessions, establishing a human contact that goes beyond the linguistic barrier. Each of the contingent will be asked to apply with the utmost flexibility the military expertise so far gained in supporting the Lebanese Armed Forces in restoring their territory control and in acquiring new capabilities.
The paratrooper of the Folgore who is about to take part in operative theater will be asked to demonstrate dishonesty and initiative in making decisions, courage in imitating the use of force to avoid collateral damage or unwanted effects, sense of duty and honor to be always by example with impeccable conduct. And with the pride of commander, I can tell you that my paratroopers are ready to face the challenge, whatever the mission to accomplish ".
The brigade thunderbolt returns to Lebanon after ten years and in one of the most delicate moments where tension between Israel and Hezbollah is high, even in relation to Syria. Both are unquestionable winners and rivals: Hezbollah, who won on the ground by supporting the liberation of Syria from those terrorists whom in Italy someone called "democratic rebels" and Israel which, in fact, has for decades neutralized Syria as a threat.
It goes without saying that the brigade Folgore, given the fluidity of the Lebanese situation, could be a difficult mission, but the commander Sganga is fully aware of this. “The mission is probably the most difficult in recent years but the difficulties do not scare us in the least. We approach this mission in compliance with the provisions of the UN mandate, so we will not depart from there and we look forward to being able to relate to the local population and the Lebanese Armed Forces to be able to support them, as required by the mandate ".
The LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces) is now widely recognized as a national institution and throughout Lebanon. Training them, especially in the south of the country, is part of the UN Security Council 1.701 resolution, along with Cimic's activities and constant monitoring of the Blue Line.
"We go with one of the tasks assigned to the contingent that is to support the Laf's redeployment in the south of Lebanon and, obviously, train them", Added Sganga. "So, we have all the professionalism and all the procedures already in place to be able to do it effectively. And we look forward to the fact that joint training has a twofold relationship: we are not only teaching us but we are learning from them, because we are talking about relationships with an extremely diverse population for which to confront us in efficient way with the LAF, it's a challenge for each of my men and for me".
Remembering El Alamein
Between today's thunderbolt and yesterday's there is a thread of history and heroism without interruption, a before and after, a zero year called El Alamein, the official baptism of Italian military parachuting after the "debut" in Libya of 1938. For this reason, even if ahead of October 23, it was impossible not to celebrate. Memory is important. El Alamein represented a painful and at the same time glorious moment for the Italian soldiers, which saw a handful of men fighting for the love of country and for a sense of honor as well as duty, people with straight backs who fought to the end even knowing that they had lost the battle before starting to fight, equipped with ridiculous equipment, obsolete weapons, without supplies, continuing for months to drink water that tasted of gasoline, practically abandoned by the central government. It was the decline of the Axis armies in North Africa, but in that part of Egypt where those who have been there know how hostile the desert is, how much in areas like the Qattara depression the heat closes your throat, in that October 1942 the legend was born. It is history, but it is also the myth of paratroopers and the scream thunderbolt.
And 75 years, many have passed since 1942, are an important number. Too bad that the event went almost unnoticed by official and government institutions. When in the Gamerra square, just before the start of the official ceremony, the lion of the thunderbolt Santo Pelliccia, just back from El Alamein, the roar that rises from the bleachers is thrilling. It is not folklore, it is not fanaticism, not even nostalgia, it is rather admiration and gratitude on the part of those who still have a minimum of homeland pride. And seeing so many young people attending the event, applauding, listening, is at least synonymous with hope.
Ideal Staff
The commander of the brigade thunderbolt Rodolfo Sganga has an excellent relationship with the National Paratroopers Association of Italy, today chaired by General Marco Bertolini and thanked the members because "always numerous participate in our annual commemoration: thank you for being here, guarding our traditions and as messengers of the values of our wonderful specialty. A specialty that we serve today and that you served yesterday, a unique specialty, made up of men and women definitely out of the ordinary".
Among the various ways in which memory is preserved, making it alive every time, there is the Relay of the Ideals which, established years ago by the then national president of the ANPdI, General Francesco Merlino, is now a consolidated tradition. Three torches departing from Viterbo, Tarquinia and Tradate (Varese), to then rejoin Pisa and light the fire in the brazier in front of the heroes' shrine. Because it is a question of reunion, with the thoughts and ideals of those paratroopers who sacrificed their lives for their homeland. The appointment was on the afternoon of October 4, in front of the small Memorial of the Tarquinia cemetery, the first military parachuting school in Italy, the mother of each wing. Here came the torch that came from Viterbo, from the monument wanted by Paolo Caccia Dominioni. The president of the ANPd'I section of Tarquinia Giulio Ciurluini and the deputy mayor Manuel Catini did the honors. Many paratroopers were present, the section of Rome in large numbers including the president AdrianoTocchi and the veteran paratrooper of the Social Republic Citterich.
A short, moving ceremony when the photo of Giuseppe Pitruzzello was added to the Shrine of the paratroopers of yesterday and today, a major caporal who fell ill following a mission in the 2003 in Bosnia, who fought long before yielding and to whom the State recognized the causes of service.
From this place, ideal and physical starting point and confluence, the first torchbearer with the torch left for twenty kilometers, Tommaso Barrasso. Military, originally from the province of Avellino, until a month ago in service at the 185th artillery of Bracciano, now in Florence at the Military Geographical Institute. Paratrooper for 20 years, instructor, member of the ANPd'I section of Tarquinia, "El Alamein is our story", He says as soon as he finishes the journey, still excited and with a heart in a thousand. "While I was running I thought about the purpose, because this is a unique day and three days are dedicated to the memory of the events of distant 42. It is truly exciting: when you carry a torch, you also carry an ideal, which is the same as our ancestors. And someone is still alive, so the memory is still direct and transmissible ... For me, this is the most important place, this is where skydiving was born, this place is its mother". The relay, which wound along the Aurelia also passing from Livorno in front of the Vannucci barracks, saw the participation of dozens of torch bearers from the ANPd'I section of Rome including instructors and students and three paratroopers from Barletta. A beautiful demonstration that you can be brothers without the same blood if you share an ideal that when it is true is as eternal as that burning fire in the brazier on the square of the Gamerra the next day, on arrival in Pisa in the late afternoon, which is it was a real come home.
What it means to be paratroopers, the sense of belonging so strong, Commander Sganga explained in his speech. "We paratroopers, we are a particular breed: in service or on leave, conventional or special, of Infantry or other Weapons, of the Army or other Armed Forces, framed in different brigades, even if we wear different friezes on our amaranth berets, although we wear different badges on our uniforms, we remain united by a common umbilical cord, irrefutably identical, a unique DNA since 1938, the year of the birth of national military parachuting, which identifies the paratrooper as an unscrupulous fighter, possessing strong initiative, courageous and with a great sense of duty . The unscrupulousness is the iron will to carry out the assigned tasks at all costs. The initiative comes from the awareness of being part of a team in which each member knows very well that the success of the group depends on each of them. The courage of being men and women in arms, called to face the unknown of situations in front of which all the others would stop. The sense of duty, from the awareness of being citizens who are asked for something more than others, because we have the privilege of serving the institutions. We are profoundly satisfied professionals when we give one hundred percent, and deeply dissatisfied when we give 99 percent. We are soldiers, who love to live with the restlessness generated by the unknown that is beyond the door of the aircraft in the act of jumping into the void".
Paratroopers love them or hate them, there is no middle ground. But above all, you cannot fail to look at them with disenchanted eyes and not understand that behind that amaranth beret there are normal lives, there are hopes, dreams, disappointments and joys. And of course there are soldiers, with an iron training behind them, a very high professionalism and a way of approaching the community, whether it is ours in case of help in calamities or abroad wherever it is needed, capable of combining duty and heart. They manage to get you out of the squalor in which politics and media go hand in hand every other day as well, as if they also gave you a pair of wings to fly high. And also for this reason they make you feel honored to share their motherland.
