On Thursday 5th September, the change of command ceremony of the Italian Navy took place at the military airport of Pratica di Mare (RM). Air Transport Training School (SATA) between Colonel Pilot Alessandro Iaia, outgoing commander, and Colonel Pasquale Savino, incoming commander. The ceremony was presided over by the commander of the AM Schools and 3rd Air Region, General of the Air Squad Silvano Frigerio, in the presence of the delegate of the mayor of the city of Pomezia, councilor Marco Polidori and other military, civil and religious authorities of the territory.
Colonel Iaia, who during his term was a supporter of the renaming of the former Multi-crew crew training center (CAE MC) in the current SATA, becoming in fact the first commander of the SATA, highlighted “…that our current name and our new department emblem that we designed and that we proudly wear on our chest, bind us indelibly to the past, precisely because it unequivocally recalls our origins by linking us to the school that already in the 50s carried out our type of training, underlining our being the fruit of the sacrifices of our predecessors, up to the most extreme cases in which someone paid with his life for the service rendered to the Fatherland.” In his speech Colonel Iaia recalled this “journey” as “…a two-year period characterized by important celebrations: the hundred years of the foundation of our FA, the first 10 years of life of our School, the achievement of 100 Military Pilot Licenses delivered, the 10.000 flight hours completed. Intense and significant activities that accompanied us in carrying out our institutional training tasks. […] I used the word journey precisely because I understood my period of command as such, a journey, which does not begin when we leave nor ends when we reach the destination, but begins much earlier and never ends, because the tape of memories continues to flow inside us even after we have stopped.” The outgoing commander then addressed the women and men of SATA that he commanded for 2 years, underlining the exemplary nature, commitment and dedication of each of them in training new military pilots.
Colonel Savino, in thanking the superior authorities for the trust placed in him for the conferral of the new and prestigious assignment, wanted to recall that “…what you sow, you reap, and we have the task of caring for the first shoots of men and women to whom we will entrust the defense of our country and our institutions, to whom we might find ourselves directing our fears, our hopes, sometimes our cries for help. From our classrooms, from our squadrons, will emerge the men and women who will be part of and lead the crews that will leave for Wuhan to bring our compatriots home, when we still don’t know what a pandemic is. They will bring Italians home from remote parts of the world, to protect them from political and humanitarian crises, natural disasters. They will bring humanitarian aid around the world, […] in conditions bordering on the prohibitive, to save human lives. They will put their skills and their professionalism at the service of the country, in collaboration with the other Ministries, to deal with emergencies that increasingly hurt our beautiful Italy, […] without forgetting that they will provide, certainly not least (on the contrary!), their essential support in operations, everywhere in the world, in which Italy participates and will decide to participate, to guarantee the safeguarding of international peace and security.
These boys, these men and these women, will actively contribute to the security of our country, of our little world, of our own home, allowing us the luxury of continuing, as yesterday, today and tomorrow, to take our freedom and our well-being for granted". The outgoing commander finally thanked Colonel Iaia for the work carried out in these years, allowing him to inherit “…a niche of excellence”.
Finally, General Silvano Frigerio took the floor. The commander of the AM Schools and the 3rd Air Region, after greeting the guests who attended, addressed his appreciation to Colonel Iaia for “…the example and teamwork, ingredients that have allowed us to experience a period rightly defined as intense and engaging”, recalling the many objectives pursued and achieved during his command. General Frigerio then confirmed and renewed his full confidence in the incoming commander, Colonel Savino, to whom he gave “the task of going further, always looking ahead and raising the bar that Colonel Iaia referred to a little higher”.
SATA, under the command of the AM/3ª RA schools in Bari, currently operates on P-180 “Avanti I” aircraft, and conducts advanced training courses on multi-engine aircraft for the Air Force, for other Armed Forces and Armed Corps of the State in order to obtain the military pilot's license (BPM) as required by the new training process “IPTS 2020”. At the same time, SATA provides training for newly assigned or redeployed personnel on the “Multi Crew” lines, ensuring the standardization of training for the various operational lines, also guaranteeing the achievement of qualifications and flight licenses recognized by the competent civil authority (ENAC).
