This morning took place at the barracks "Pietro Mittica" in Pordenone, the ceremony of rotation at the top of the 132 ^ brigade brigade "Aries".
Brigadier General Angelo Michele Ristuccia, 59 ° commander of the great unit, replaced the Enrico Barduani parigrade, coming from the Defense General Staff.
General Ristuccia, who will now hold the prestigious position of chief of staff at the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps of Solbiate Olona, has left Pordenone after more than two years of intense and fruitful command, during which the "Aries", with its dependent departments, has been engaged in multiple and complex operational and training activities, in Italy and abroad, for national and international security and to support the population in places affected by natural disasters.
Among these, to remember, the numerous activities carried out for the VJTF (Very High Readiness Joint Task Force), the intervention force with very high specialization and rapid deployment, established in NATO, whose leadership is entrusted, in rotation , in units of the member countries and that for the 2018, the year assigned to Italy, saw the "Aries" operate successfully as VJTF Land Brigade.
For this important international commitment, Aries, using some of its employees and qualified specialized structures of the Italian Armed Forces and other nations, carried out a complex training and preparation cycle, which culminated with the participation in Norway, in recent months, the "Trident Juncture 2018" exercise, the most impressive training activity organized by NATO since the end of the Cold War, with fifty thousand soldiers deployed from 31 in different countries.
In these two years the brigade "Aries" has also continued to provide operational assets for all the international missions in which Italian soldiers are present, from Iraq to Kosovo, from Lebanon to Afghanistan.
To this is added the constant contribution provided by the brigade to the "Safe Roads" operation on various national squares such as Milan, Rome, Val di Susa and the areas of central Italy affected by the 2016 earthquake, where still personal of the "Aries" it is employed.
Equally significant was the commitment to reinforce the already excellent relations between the great armored unit and the different realities of the Pordenone territory through the numerous initiatives that Aries has contributed to creating, in the field of sport, social assistance and culture. .
Among the many events that have seen the support of the military "Aries", we must remember the Giro d'Italia cycling of the 2017 and 2018, the world championships of paracycling, the events "Sport in the shop window" and "Pordenone Pedala" , the "Uniform Expo" and "Punto d'Incontro" fairs and the various study, research and training initiatives developed in collaboration with the University of Udine and the Aviano Oncological Reference Center (CRO).
At the ceremony, chaired by the commander of the division "Friuli", general of division Carlo Lamanna, there were the main civil and military authorities, including the Prefect of Pordenone, Maria Rosaria Maiorino, and the mayor of Pordenone, Alessandro Ciriani, in addition to representatives of Combat and Weapon Associations. The fanfare of the XNXX ° Bersaglieri regiment was also deployed, enlivening the different stages of the ceremony in music.
In his farewell speech General Ristuccia thanked all the staff of the brigade for having supported him well during his command activity, remarking the pride of having been, for such an important period, at the helm of the glorious great armored unit. A particular thought addressed him with heartfelt gratitude to the commanders of the division "Friuli" (general Lamanna), of the Command Operative Forces Nord (generals Stano, Serra and Sperotto) and of NATO Rapid Deployable Corps Italy (general Perretti) with whom he worked in this years.
For General Barduani, 60 ° commander of the "Aries", it is a return to the North-East of Italy, where he served at the beginning of his career, for a few years, at the "Lancieri di Novara" regiment (5 ° ) of Codroipo. General Barduani was head of the department Publish Information and Communication of the General Staff of Defense, a post he left in recent days to take command of the 132 ^ armored brigade "Aries".
Established in the 1939, the "Aries" is currently the only large unit of the Italian Army and is divided into eight departments, dependent on the brigade command, and are: 11 ° Bersaglieri regiment of Orcenico, 132 ° armored artillery regiment of Maniago , 32 ° regiment wagons of Tauriano, 132 ° regiment wagons of Cordenons, regiment "Lancers of Novara" (5 °) of Codroipo, 10 ° regiment genius guastatori of Cremona, logistic regiment "Ariete" of Maniago and command department and tactical supports " Aries "from Pordenone.
