At the Cortile d'Onore of the Doge's Palace in Modena, a ceremony was held last Friday for the commander of the Military Academy. In the presence of the Army Commander for Formation and Application School, divisional general Salvatore Cuoci, and the local authorities, Division General Stefano Mannino handed over the command to Brigadier General Rodolfo Sganga.
In the farewell address, the transferor commander recalled that "Modena is the Academy and the Academy is Modena", emphasizing the indissoluble bond that for over seventy years has united the Institute with the city, a relationship that has been consolidated over time and that is realized daily through synergies and collaborations with the social, cultural, sporting and productive realities of the territory; "The presence of the Military Academy is not just a physical presence, but an active participation in the events that, so richly, animate the life of this city", because "this splendid Ducal Palace that hosts us is a good that does not belong only to the military institution but it is the heritage of the city and of the entire Modena community ”.
The incoming commander, after addressing a greeting address to the numerous authorities who "with their presence wanted to show, in such a solemn moment, an affectionate and heartfelt closeness to the Military Academy", stated that it is his intention to further strengthen the fruitful relationship of collaboration established in recent decades, continuing to work in the direction already followed by its predecessors and which was the main road for building such fruitful relationships. In his speech, the commander for the Army Training and Application School stressed that the commander's alternation "is not only an act with a formal meaning, but it is the substantial moment of the transition between the moral and professional energies that the commander has transmitted to the students and their collaborators, and the vigor and enthusiasm that the new commander brings with him ".
Brigadier General Rodolfo Sganga, 69th commander of the Institute, whose specific mission is the basic training of future executives of the Italian Army and the Carabinieri, has spent a significant part of his professional life in the the “Folgore” paratroopers brigade, who left as commander last week; he has participated in numerous missions outside the Italian territory and held various and prestigious positions at national and international level, both in the Army and inter-force sectors. The Military Academy is heir to the traditions of the Royal Academy established on January 1, 1678 and is the oldest basic military training institute in the world, preceding the Russian Academy of St. Petersburg, the English Royal Military Academy, the Ecole Royale French Militaire and, finally, the West Point Military Institute in the United States of America.
