Dear Director, last Sunday I watched the live broadcast on the Jesolo air show.
Usually, when there is an air show with generous participation from the Experimental Department, I go there in person, but this Sunday I just couldn't. Knowing, however, that some of my former Academy classmates would intervene in the broadcast as guests, I carefully followed the (beautiful) live broadcast, which for once proposed something different from the usual Sunday schedules that make you regret staying at home.
It was explained at that time at least a few dozen times that the name "airshow" was abandoned for the occasion to respect the victims of the Amatrice earthquake. The depth of the gesture also had a touching evidence of the absence (not replaced, even amplified by a telephone connection of the capt. Luca Galli, aka "Pony 7") which could not perform together with the other "Frecce Tricolori" in the concluding part of the event, being his own of Amatrice and having therefore to be present in His places and close to His loved ones.
The occasion was also useful to let the many viewers know the roles, tasks and organization of the many Air Force departments.
All beautiful and perfect. Almost.
Yes, because the case has it that last Sunday was the 28 August, and this is a date that brings with it the memory of another serious loss: that of the dead 70 and 346 injured of the accident that occurred at the airshow (or air show that say yes) by Ramstein, in the 1988 ...
70 dead and 346 injured including the mutilated, moreover provoked (albeit accidentally) by that same National Aerobatic Team, which in that incident lost 3 of its best pilots ever, and not even an adequate memory about it, despite the fact that the distance every greater time from the public (violated only by the new trajectory of the current soloist in the "Crazy Flight") is precisely consequent to that incident.
I understand very well that all the media attention of the moment is catalyzed by this terrible seismic event, but the question that comes to mind is the following: it will not be that the 300 dead of this earthquake will be forgotten like those Ramstein 70 as soon as their sacrifice will no longer be news?
That said, conceptually linking to another of my letters on the subject of the memory of the fallen, I attach a photograph of the remains of the 3 MB-339 of that incident, kept in a museum near Rimini as a monument to the dead caused by that 'accident.
Best regards.
Andrea Troncone
06 / 09 / 16 - Very kind manager, I follow my letter a few days ago, to add to a necessary clarification.
A letter is a personal opinion (shared or not), while an article, when done in a serious and honest way, is an objective description of some reality.
My letter, after being published and highlighted (a consideration of which I can only be flattered) has however turned into an article, so IF THERE IS AN ERROR, THIS MUST BE RECTIFIED BY virtue of the absolute objectivity that a article must describe, and that is why I go back to writing about the same subject.
I come immediately to the heart of the matter.
A friend of mine, after reading that I complained about the non-commemoration of the victims of Ramstein during the air show in Jesolo last August 28, pointed out to me that in reality those victims had already been commemorated a few days before, in a joint commemoration with that for the two Tornado crews collided two years ago in the sky of Ascoli Piceno.
In all honesty, when I wrote the letter you published, I knew absolutely nothing about this joint commemoration. The date of that ceremony (if I am not mistaken, the 19 August) saw me mentally very far from thinking of anything other than a pleasant beach holiday, and I have neither read your timely reports of similar commemorations, nor similar dispatches of other source, including institutional ones.
As can be deduced from other things I have written in the past (written this time in the form of an article, not a letter), I have always been "the poisoned tooth" from the failure to remember the fallen because of a bad family matter, due to this theme . But this is not the case to return to my article. The description of this predisposition of mine can, however, perhaps help us to understand how not having heard of that previous commemoration of the victims of Ramstein and vice versa having assisted, on the date of its anniversary, only to the commemoration of the victims of the earthquake, I urged to write to share with you a spontaneous thought, but evidently affected by a defect of form.
With "hindsight" I think that the purpose of maximizing the collection of funds advocated by any source of information since the aftermath of that damned seismic event, can therefore also justify focusing on this single goal, while as I have partly hinted in my own letter, the memory of Ramstein is implicitly witnessed at every air show by the increasing distance from the public to guarantee his safety, to the detriment of the spectacular nature of the exhibition. So it is certainly a tragically alive memory even when it is not publicly remembered.
I therefore offer my public apology to those of the Organization of the aerial demonstration in Jesolo who have decided to focus all their attention on the victims of the earthquake, just four days after its destructive appearance and in the middle of the most important phase operational of the relief work.
The words of appreciation for an organization that has made a beautiful work of dissemination (and not of propaganda) and contributed to sensitizing everyone towards a fraternal solidarity remain of my previous written.
In faith,
Andrea Troncone
