On the day of Memorial Day at the American Military Cemetery of the Falciani, in Impruneta, on the outskirts of Florence, the visit of the Undersecretary of State for Defense, Domenico Rossi, who participated, representing the Dicastery, speaking at the commemoration ceremony to commemorate the sacrifice of American soldiers who fell during World War II.
"These gravestones remind us that in the past, together, we have won, albeit with great sacrifices, enormous challenges, but they must also be a warning for the future because the nightmare of war, of reprisals, of oppression, never fades in the our minds, in the knowledge that the dangers that currently affect the security of the entire international community are much more subtle"said the undersecretary in his speech,"Threats that require an ever more vigilant presence of our Armed Forces in distant and tormented lands, and that will have to be faced with a spirit of ever greater Atlantic solidarity."
And then referring to the recent terrorist attack in Manchester and the country's commitment to international missions, Rossi pointed out that "Italy is convinced that belonging to the Atlantic Alliance and the promotion of an increasingly united and integrated Europe, also from the defense point of view, are necessary guarantees for the maintenance of peace and the fight against terrorism, as demonstrated by the commitments that our Armed Forces have been supporting internationally for years."
With Rossi the United States Ambassador to Italy and San Marino, Kelly Degnan, the commander of the American Esrcito in Europe, General Ben Hodges and the United States consul in Florence Abigail Rupp intervened.
The authorities then deposed laurel wreaths along the Wall of the Missing, on which the names of the soldiers who fell in battle are engraved. The fanfare of the carabinieri of Florence and military departments of the US and Italian Armed Forces paid the military honors.
In this sacred place lie more than 4.000 soldiers of the United States of America, fallen on Italian soil during the Second World War
The American cemetery of Florence is one of the places in overseas territories chosen by the American Battle Monuments Commission to house the remains of military dead abroad, and stands on an area ceded free of charge by the Italian government to the United States of America for the burial of some of the American soldiers of the 5th Army who died during the Italian campaign between 1943 and 1945.
