03.35 hours. Actually I had "pointed" the alarm at four. I have to be in the Arsenal for the 05.15s. I have a little way to go. I woke up after just three hours of sleep.
I am happy and smiling, with one of those expressions on my face that you cannot compare to any other emotion. When lieutenant Carlo Faggiana, chief Core Public Information from Comflotsom, he called me a few days ago, to let me know that the incredible opportunity to get on board a submarine is coming up, I do not have a moment's hesitation to confirm it. And in a hurry I do not listen to the last words ... A "early morning" was waiting for me. I hear him smile while I am unrestrainedly enthusiastic.
At that moment I feel a bit like Commander Primo Longobardo: he didn't like being on land, he preferred the sea, so he asked to return, insistently, to command a submarine.
When the TV Faggiana tells me the name of the submarine I remain base for my "feeling" just experienced.
In fact, the S524 takes its name from the commander of the frigate Primo Longobardo, submarine commander and medal for military valor of the 2nd World War. It was built in the Monfalcone plant of Fincantieri SpA and delivered to the Italian Navy on 14 December 1993. It belongs to the class Sauro IV series.
The port of assignment of the Longobardo it's Taranto. I do not expect one of the "usual" cognitive visits on board the boat. I will attend a training dive during the "Exer Medusa", a joint activity between submariners e paratroopers swimmers of the 1st regiment of the San Marco marine brigade. The focus of the mission will be the covert release of the above team from the submarine.
I think I'm among the lucky few, writing for a newspaper like Online Defense which tells the Armed Forces, to have the opportunity to participate in this activity.
Come to the Flotilla Command, we await the commander, the vessel captain Stefano Russo. We delay a few minutes, sipping a coffee, waiting to receive the "nulla osta" to embark. When we are moving towards the quay, where the Longobardo, waiting for us is the commander of the submarine, lieutenant Robert Gelsomino, a young Italian-English commander, affable and concrete. I walk the catwalk hastily and, after a firm handshake, the commander me gives the "cap" and invited me to wear it. I put it on the head with a little 'embarrassment: I have perhaps some merit to bring it?
The captain's smile, in which all the pride of belonging to submariners shines through, helps me overcome theimpasse.
Immediately after, the commander of the Flotilla, CV Russo, gets on board, to whom the usual honors are given, complete with a "whistle".
While the TV Faggiana and some non-commissioned officers of Comflotsom follow all the phases of the training activity from the outside with the "Mein", a hydrojet support motorboat (at the end of the activity it will also be used for our transfer from the submarine to the Arsenal) , we go on board through the sentry box.
MI meet in the launch room and in the crew quarters, a long corridor with "cots" on either side. Standing are the marines of the 1st regiment of the San Marco marine brigade, who are already checking their equipment for the activity to be carried out.
Not even the time to get in room for maneuver that the commander Russo and the commander Gelsomino invite me to get on the bridge to follow the maneuver of disormeggio next to the insiders.
When the boat begins to "move", behind me the two commanders are standing on the turret. Despite the sun, it's cold and a "biting" wind is king.
Describe the emotion I feel while staying on the bridge passing under the Swing bridge of the city of Taranto - the same one I walk - and doing the honors at the Aragonese Castle is difficult. Any adjective would be inappropriate. One thing is certain: the submariners' family is as unique as the emotions it gives. My eyes are wide open and I don't think about anything. I'm at the "premiere" of a show. Those emotions are indelible "imprints" in me.
From the bridge of the Longobardo, I see "my" city and, mostly, life from another perspective. The sea and the sky between the respective nuances are confused.
When we get off the bridge, closed the hatch and the counter hatch, I find myself back in the control room. I understand that, aboard that boat, everyone in that space has taken on their role in their respective post. There is a "shouting" of dry and precise commands.
The beginning of this dive, perhaps, is not particularly exciting for the veterans of the crew, but it is for me that I feel like a new embarked on the first experience. Oops, I really am!
In operating room, the "heart" of a submarine, all operational events are managed: from the diving and surfacing maneuver, to the normal boat conduct. Here the signals coming from the "passive" Sonar are listened to and listened to, configuring itself as a real high-sensitivity electronic ear. The submarines must listen to "the sounds" that propagate in the water without being noticed, "without making noise".
In the meantime there are those who trace the route using a chart table with nautical charts.
There are two in the center of the control room periscopes: the "attack" one used under operating conditions, and the "exploration" one.
At a periscopic height based on the presence of possible surface threats outside the boat, it is possible to calculate how much "safe" time you can stay with the lowered periscope using only the aid of the equipment. Always staying with the "tall" periscope predisposes and exposes to a threat.
I watch fascinated keyboard of air vents, from where you control the intake of air in the ballast tanks to bring out the boat, or you command the introduction of water in the same boxes to weigh it down and make it soak.
Always in the maneuvering room there is the "autopilot console"Where the helmsman, through an indicator of course and speed and a" cloche ", similar to that of the aircraft, governs the boat by executing the orders of the guard on maneuver.
Accompanied by Commander Gelsomino we pass by the battery storage room. I am advised to be careful because the presence of oil makes the walkway slippery.
We head towards the "local electrical panels"Where the electric motor is managed, and therefore the propulsion.
For submarines, the boat has a soul. There are no spaces and there is not much privacy: 50 submergers around, men and women, must clear the living spaces. For each of them, one's partner enjoys the utmost respect. Very narrow corridors, where the "hugs" are not lacking - joking - without losing concentration and with "ears well open! to perceive the commands that come from colleagues and the commander. Each must rely on the other, because life - first of all - depends on each of them.
The submariner must be equipped with great nervous stability, because in conditions of extreme criticality must respond in a logical manner to everything that happens, especially in the maneuvering room.
The role of Commander Gelsomino - at the head of the crew - as well as that of the Commander Russo - at the head of the Flotilla and supervisor during the Medusa training activity - makes us understand how this component of the Italian Navy is made up of serious professionals who love their means and life at sea, supporting and supporting their men with valuable advice and adequate teaching.
(Continued)
(Photo: Marina Military)
