Today, June 15th in Le Grazie (SP) at the representative club of divers and raiders grouping command – COMSUBIN the press conference was held to present the complete program of activities and initiatives that will mark the ninetieth anniversary celebrations of the category over the next few months divers, organized by the Navy under the patronage of the Province, the Municipality of La Spezia and the Municipality of Portovenere. The event was attended by the commander Rear Admiral Massimiliano Rossi, the councilor of the Municipality of La Spezia Pietro Cimino and the mayor of Porto Venere Francesca Sturlese.
The Navy today proudly celebrates these ninety years: in fact, with the law of 15.06.1933 n. 778, the first training of the "divers" category was arranged by annexing the personnel who, in the context of torpedo boats, had acquired the diver certificate at the special school founded in Genoa in 1849 within the Navy of the Kingdom of Sardinia.
The divers today represent the Italian excellence in the field of Defense in the context of military underwater operations of all kinds, with intervention capabilities that can be extended in favor of the population through the support offered to various State ministries and National Agencies in the field of civil protection, in scientific and social contexts, peculiarities that make this component of the Navy a real dual use tool at the service of the community.
Thanks to their operational peculiarities and through important inter-agency and inter-ministerial collaborations, the divers of the operating group divers are employed in all the seas of the globe, such as for example in Antarctica in favor of ENEA within the framework of the National Antarctic Research Programme, in the research and protection of underwater archaeological assets in support of the Ministry of Culture or for the benefit of the Ministry of economic development as regards the inspection and control of the waters in which the plants and infrastructures of the hydrocarbon extraction platforms are located off-shore.
The current international scenario further relaunches the category of divers who, with its first 90 years, is projected into the future through the new frontier of theunderwater, where it will increasingly be called upon to safeguard national interests, because it is from the sea that most of the oil and natural gas arrive in Italy and it is on the seabed that the fiber optic backbones run, essential for effectively managing the needs of a modern digital economy and society.
To celebrate this historic category Porto Venere, La Spezia and its gulf will be the fulcrum of various initiatives that will also touch other Italian cities traditionally linked to one of the most fascinating sea trades, born in a pioneering way and today become one of the visiting cards of the Italian Navy in the world.
