In a cold and windy Livorno, this morning, 203 young students of the Navy have sworn loyalty to the Italian Republic, in front of their families, national and local authorities and their superiors. To them, lined up waiting to scream with emotion and thrill "I swear", The commander of the Naval Academy, Rear Admiral Pierpaolo Ribuffo, addressed:"Students, the moment you are about to experience is destined to remain indelibly imprinted on your memory. You are about to consecrate your minds and hearts to the service of the Republic. Today is your day. The life you have chosen to embrace will lead you to face a thousand sacrifices and a thousand difficulties, but it is a life full of wonderful gratifications, the most precious of which will be the smile of your men, know how to deserve it. Invest with tenacity in your preparation. Cultivate courage, especially moral courage. Confront each trial with generosity, enthusiasm and curiosity, the best allies for those who are twenty years old. Develop a healthy critical spirit. Run with your head high for the values you have chosen to interpret. Parade up for what you are today. Run with your head high for what you have chosen to become tomorrow".
Head-to-head, as highlighted by the Chief of Defense Staff, General Claudio Graziano: "Be proud of what you are and what you do; be proud of being the best part of our society and walk with your head up and with the affection of all the armed forces that are close to you. Today you have entered the Navy, today you have become something important: a bridge between the past and the future. Your mission in the future will be to walk in a transformation, to walk in a change, to walk in a moment when the Italian Armed Forces are becoming more and more international and a reference point in Europe and in the world".
A future that awaits the young students who can not but be linked to the present and the past, as the Chief of the Navy Chief of Staff, Admiral Valter Girardelli, recalled: "To you pupils and young officers the recommendation to remember the past to build the future: your future, that of the Navy, of the Armed Forces, of the country, because the future belongs to you. The freshness, the youth of your minds, the dynamism and enthusiasm of your age, your current being in a society that evolves at high speed are a wealth to which the Navy, the Armed Forces, the Defense, the community do not want , can not and must not renounce".
The 203 students look to the future and to exhort them to give their best the Minister of Defense, Roberta Pinotti, thinks, saying: "Your real challenge is to become men and women before they are official. People of the sea before the people of the defense, because it is of men and women of the sea that our Defense and Italy need. The work you do and do, you will do it with care, with dedication, with honor, with pride, with courage. You will have important examples and as in these years the Armed Forces have done, you will be an example in the world of what Italy is capable of. Great reputation of Italy comes from the work of our Armed Forces, comes from the work of our Navy".
(photo: General Staff Defense)
