Towards the end of 2018, the news of the South China Morning Post, on the discovery of the remains of a ship lying on a depth of 434 meters, about seven miles from the Korean island of Ulleungdo. The wreck was identified thanks to the name written in Cyrillic on the stern: “Dimitri Donskoy”.
In 1904, the Russian cruiser "Dimitri Donskoy" with steam engines and masts was now an obsolete ship swinging placidly on the Baltic when, in October, she was mobilized and commanded together with her other unfortunate sisters to go across the seas of the globe, thousands of miles away in the Far East.
Seven months after leaving Russia, the Dimitri Donskoy with the sister ships, across the Strait of Surigao, one morning he showed up near Tsushima: it was a slaughter, the heroism of the sailors-mugik Russian (peasants) was not second to that of Japanese samurai.
With the Russian fleet now at the bottom of the sea or captured by the Japanese, on the evening of May 28, 1905, the tired Dimitri, escaped from the waters of Tsushima fighting strenuously against 6 cruisers who pursued him and survived until the next day when his captain Ivan Lebedev, who refused until the last to lower the glorious Andreevadue to the extensive damage, he decided to scuttle the ship.
I look at an old photograph from the Thiess book: Tsushima, I see an old steamship equipped as a "ship", well paved, it looks like a little duck used to navigate, a few cannons here and there, sailors can be seen at the halyards, mugik taken out of agriculture, surely ill-trained, poorly equipped, and cared for, who were forced on a hellish journey to pass from arctic freezing to tropical heat, near the fire of the boilers, to breathe black smoke and low quality coal grease, protagonists in spite of themselves in an odyssey on seas still little known at the time, which bathed foreign lands with even neutral people, who systematically rejected the requests for supplies from the Admiralty of St. Petersburg.
A distant event, an epic across three oceans, a tragedy culminating in the death of over 4.000 Russian sailors, who were brought before the roar of the cannon, which overwhelmed their voices, and took away from them the precious good of Life. Admiral Rožestvensky, a giant, shot in the head and caught unconscious, never again had a command at sea.
Nobody wrote that they were heroes, a word so abused nowadays, no one prayed, or thanked and celebrated those sailors for their loyalty, self-denial, courage shown, spirit of sacrifice, privations suffered, not to mention the humiliations inflicted on them not only by the victors, but also by the authorities of their country when they return home. Many were tried, even arrested, and all both those sent to Siberia and those who survived were forgotten.
A dream ... the old Dimitri found ... someone says he was transporting the gold of the 2nd Russian fleet lost within 3 hours in Tsushima ... The Russians deny the presence of gold, we'll see if anyone will have the courage with the Russians out of the way to go and get him ... just digress ...
It occurs to me, however, that even at home we are sometimes not far behind in dealing with people.
I refer to the way in which, with the professionalization of the FFAAs, a recruitment system for the acquisition of new personnel has been organized, managed and maintained from the beginning of 2000 to date, to meet the staffing needs of the FFAAs themselves. follow the abolition of military service. There were evident rights often denied, even the most elementary ones, to people both in access and at the end of military life, to the point of preventing or making it difficult for many of them to reintegrate into everyday life with the equal opportunities of those already belonging to the civilian world (see for example: the frequency of arrangement of seats reserved for military precarious workers in public competitions - there is something to laugh about ...)
To the complex reorganization of the FFAA on the professional model, and in particular to the regulatory provisions relating to the same "professionalization", the rules adopted over time determined the so-called military precariat in the defense sector.
The so-called "precarious" military staff corresponds to all personnel recruited pursuant to the laws on professionalization, whether they are retained (confirmed / FFAA requirements) or recalled, in such a way as to accrue a period of equivalent service - same role: officer , non-commissioned officer, or troop soldier - altogether more than thirty six (36) months in the Corps / Weapons to which he belongs.
The AUFP officers and AUC officers have often been placed among the precarious workers, who all together are the auxiliary officers of the Navy, carabinieri, etc .. The officers with fixed stops, AUFP, are called to serve for thirty months , renewable by the Administration on which it depends, with a further 12 months of re-affirmation; in short, a fixed-term relationship with the military public administration.
It is hardly necessary to point out that the definition "At fixed stop", is used to indicate the working period that elapses between this type of officer and the military administration, a meaning that is often not attributed by citizens and not only, to the same working period provided with a contract defined as "fixed term" by employees of the remaining Public Administration, the "civil" one.
In fact, a careful reading of the legislation on access to fixed-term contracts for public administration employees demonstrates the provision of the same procedural, competition and training procedures for access to the profession, not to mention the duration of the employment relationship: from 18 to 30 months extendable up to one year upon request, and according to the needs of the administration, which eventually establishes it. But the events that have occurred over time, then deny that the treatment between military and civilians has been the same. In fact, the AUFP at the end of the firm did not take a payment for the service provided while the public employee on a fixed-term basis, yes; the military precarious then, was not admitted to the civil unemployment lists at the end of the service, not to mention the periods of the course in the Academies which as far as it appears have not been recognized by the Universities for graduation purposes at the former UFP or UC.
At the end of their detention, the AUFP and AUC of Marina with over three years of service, were never stabilized by the Armed Force, despite the 2007 budget, in paragraph 519, as a priority, the mandatory detention in service, for fixed officers by the Military Administration, pending the conclusion of the stabilization procedures, all while continuing to announce competitions for UFP, every year. Conversely, the Carabinieri did not abandon, but stabilized their UFP.
From 2009 onwards at the end of the UFP service, with an internal rule of the military administration, of those adopted to organize the internal life of any public administration, to all those precarious young people, for the simple fact "of having already been "UFP, they were no longer allowed to compete for the new AUFP calls, which the ministry continued to publish. Experience, training and public money spent on the professionalism matured and acquired by the UFP was lost, and despite the fact that many had given commendable service in the Navy, and discharged without demerit at the end of the stops.
Strange but true, the condition of "having already been" AUFP officers, included in the new calls for tenders, prevented access to new public competitions with a fixed term of the same former AUFP officers, or to return to being naval officers, and now Citizens of the Republic who enjoy constitutional rights, in the same way as those who are excluded from the competition tests in the same calls for AUFP di Marina, because: "They must not be charged with non-culpable crimes or subjected to prevention or security measures, nor be in situations incompatible with the acquisition or preservation of the status of office of the Armed Forces" as reported in art. 3 Requirements, com. 3 lett. b) Ministerial Decree of 26.9.2002. No comment! No comment! No comment!
Lastly, with the Official Gazette no. 86 of 11 December 2020, the competition notice was published for the recruitment of 61 officers in permanent service of the special roles of the Navy with reserve of positions in favor of personnel belonging to the marshal role, sergeants and the spouse and surviving children or second degree collateral relatives if the only survivors, of the personnel of the Armed Forces and of the Police Forces who died in service and for reasons of service.
I think this is well done! The reservations of the places granted by the regulations in force, well summarize the merit recognized to the role of marshals, sergeants and the gratitude due to the deceased in and for service, and to the family members to whom they are intended. But it's not fair that the mugiki AUFP and AUC sent back to ground are always treated differently from the others. They are all Italians both at sea and on land!
Here it is a question of doing justice to a category of people who have been demoted to the rank of mugiki office; and justice is also done by ensuring the reserve of available places to former AUFP and / or former AUC who have the training and service requirements. This is not impossible, given that the Ministry of Defense, a perpetual source of temporary workers, is a public administration on a par (in this respect) of the other civilians, and can ensure with the necessary amendments to Articles 1014 and 678 of Legislative Decree n. 66/2010 (Military Order Code - COM) and subsequent amendments and additions (see doc. 1 and doc. 3 relevant legislation), the reserve of places available, also to former AUFP and / or former AUC who have the service requirements.
"If you want to build a ship, don't gather men just to collect wood and distribute tasks, but teach them the longing for the wide and endless sea" (Antoine-Marie-Roger de Saint-Exupéry)
PS The continuation to the next episode, ... we will go to buscar el levante por el poniente
Signature letter: Dimitri del Don
