Online Defense Letter: Let's not forget who gave life for the country

19/04/16

Dear Director, wandering around the web I came across a letter sent to Defense Online by Mr. Andrea Troncone dated 19 October 2015 with the eloquent title "paracarro beats memorial stone 2 to 0" (v. letter), with reference to the maintenance of existing tombstones and commemorative steles and the inauguration of new ones.

Taking a cue from this letter in which Mr. Troncone regrets how the institutions are rather missing in the maintenance of the memories of our fellow countrymen who have fallen in defense of the homeland and whose care is now almost entirely entrusted to family members, private citizens and non-profit associations In this regard, I wanted to let you know our experience on the subject.

I am lucky enough to preside over a newly founded association called AMA Monteroni in which the acronym stands for Amici Monteronesi Associati, born one can say by chance with the aim of reviving our town, Monteroni d'Arbia, in the immediate Sienese outskirts lying on a valley surrounded by green hills, from the status of a dormitory and suburb of the most famous city of Siena to a cultural, aggregative center and so on and so forth, trying to enhance what history has left us, the old traditions and even the desire to party together so that culture is not opposed to the desire to get together and have fun.

At the beginning of 2015 some of our associates proposed us to do something that until now no one in the area had tried to do, restore and bring back to its old splendor on the occasion of the centenary of Italy's entry into the First Great World War of the War Memorial located in the town center. After a first moment in which it seemed bigger than our potential, we put our heads down in overcoming the first obstacle, the bureaucratic part, and in this to tell the truth both the Municipal Administration and the Superintendence of the Belle Arti have come to meet us allowing us to unravel the countless paperwork and self-manage in the work even if with the monitoring of experts appointed ad hoc, so we armed ourselves with good will and we reconverted from employees, freelance workers into ... restorers, blacksmiths, gardeners.

After about 2 months of occasional work because of course no one was able to abandon the real one, the Monument took on a new life, cleaned the stone, reviewed the writing, repaired and painted the review, restored the lawn to its former glory, replaced the lighting, on 14 June (obligatory day since the real date of entry into the war fell during the electoral period) we discovered the stele to the citizens and on the occasion placed a marble plaque with the names of the fellow citizens who fell in the Second World War (donated to the community by a company of marble processing of the country). Having made such a titanic effort for our small association, we also took the luxury of organizing a ceremony with great fanfare complete with a country immersed in the Tricolor, the Fanfare of the Bersaglieri on leave from the province of Siena and the picket of honor of 186 ° rgt.par. "FOLGORE" to which all our gratitude goes as they came spontaneously after the consent denied by the general command due to the classic financial problems, a ceremony which then ended with a great dinner in which the "white / red / green" of the Italian flag and the launch of lanterns equal in number to the Monteronesi fallen.

Here, I really hope with this very simple testimony of mine to have made the idea of ​​how much for our Association founded above all on friendship it wanted to mean a similar event, there can be no words that are able to describe the emotions felt in those moments , from the beginning of the works to the final ceremony, from seeing the participation of the whole country to the words of affection and approval, I only hope that in Italy even if it would often be the care of Bodies and Administrations, even associations like ours would not lose sight of what other people have done for our freedom and give due recognition for their gestures.

I also send you some photos in which I hope you can understand what a similar event was for us, from start to finish, and I also hope that our testimony will be appreciated by you and your readers and above all received by those who can do it.

Riccardo Burroni
President of AMA Monteroni
amamonteroni@gmail.com