In the early afternoon of 26 October, at the Piacenza airport detachment, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Air Squadron General Luca Goretti, personally delivered a solemn collective commendation to the commander of the department, Lieutenant Colonel Salvatore Occini.
The delivery of the solemn commendation parchment sanctioned the recognition of the excellence that the department manages to express in the context of the valorisation of the historical aeronautical heritage, giving credit to the dedication, professionalism and talent of the military and civilian personnel of the Piacenza airport detachment which, on the occasion of the centenary of the foundation of the Armed Forces, carried out the restoration of the Fiat G-91R aircraft, part of the Italian fleet from the 50s to the early 90s.
Thanks to meticulous team work, an icon of the national aeronautical heritage was brought back to life, allowing the air carrier to be admired in flight again after 30 years, on the occasion of theAirshow of the Centenary of the Air Force, which took place last June in Pratica di Mare (RM).
The brief reading ceremony of the solemn commendation, which took place right inside the hangar where the G-91R is exhibited and physically restored, was attended by all the staff of the detachment and numerous military authorities, including the air team general Giandomenico Taricco, commander of the Rome Air Force command, the general of the air team Francesco Vestito, commander of the 1st air region of Milan, the general of division Luigi del Bene, commander of the combat forces, and the commander of the 6th wing-Ghedi, colonel Luca Giuseppe Vitaliti, on whom the Piacenza department directly depends.
After reading the solemn recognition, General Goretti underlined the exceptional restoration feat accomplished by the women and men of the department and reiterated the symbolic importance of this ambitious "challenge" won by the Air Force. “I thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have done and, I am sure, for what you will still do to give prestige to our Armed Force” concluded the Air Force chief of staff.
At the end of the ceremony there was a visit to some of the structures of the airport detachment which could in the future be used for the construction of a Flying Museum in San Damiano - a project being studied by the general staff of the Air Force - which in the future would allow visitors and enthusiasts of the world of flight to experience aeronautical history first-hand also through the possibility of seeing maintenance technicians at work intent on the restoration of historic aircraft.
The visit was finally sealed by the signing of the Roll of Honor by the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
The Piacenza airport detachment, established on 1 September 2017 on the San Damiano grounds, depends on the 6th wing of Ghedi which in turn depends on the combat forces command of Milan as part of the air team command.
Today, the Piacenza airport detachment has two main institutional tasks: to constitute a base for redeployment of operational components, on the occasion of exercises and possibly before their actual redeployment, and to contribute to the conservation and valorisation of the historical aeronautical and aerospace heritage of the 'Air Force.
Over the last few years, enhancement activities of the airport detachment have been developed. There have been many initiatives and agreements with companies involved in aeronautical development and in the automotive sector which, through public tenders, have obtained the use of the surfaces and airspace of the Airport only when not engaged in the specific operational and training activities of the department, for research, development and testing.
