On Monday 5 October the military airport "Mario de Bernardi" in Pratica di Mare received a visit from the officers who frequented the Senior Course of the NATO Defense College, the main academic training institute of the Alliance which has its headquarters in the military citadel of Cecchignola in Rome.
Il Senior Course, the most important academic activity organized by the NATO Defense College, is aimed at senior officers and joint civilian employees of the Alliance, coming from the countries of the Euro-Atlantic area or from countries with which NATO has established cooperation and partnership relations .
The international delegation, led by lieutenant general Olivier Rittimann, commander of the NATO Defense College, was welcomed and accompanied, in the various phases of the event, by the commander of the Experimental Flight Center and the Airport Command, General of the Air Division Mauro Lunardi, and by the commanders of the Experimental Flight Department (Department dependent on the Experimental Flight Center) of the 14th wing and the director of the Joint Center for Satellite Remote Sensing (Joint body dependent on the Defense Staff). The delegation was able to get to know the complex operational reality represented by the Roman airport up close.
To the general presentations on the activities carried out by the individual departments involved in the visit (Experimental Flight Department, 14th Wing and CITS) by the respective commanders (Colonel Igor Bruni, Colonel Federico Merola and Colonel Gianluigi Attingenti) and by official speakers expert in the individual activities illustrated, short visits to the laboratories and flight lines of the Experimental Flight Department and the 14th flock.
In addition to the institutional activities of the various departments visited, particular interest was aroused by the activities carried out by the RSV and by the 14th flock during the epidemiological emergency in progress, such as the adaptation of facial masks to snorkeling to transform them into protective devices dedicated to medical and health personnel, the technical operational certification of aircraft used for high-bio-containment transport, the carrying out of such transport and the repatriation of compatriots from high-risk areas.
The visit met with the appreciation and keen interest of the Italian and foreign officers present, sentiments summarized in the words of General Rittiman who, in thanking for the hospitality and welcome received, underlined the importance of these formative moments as they provide visitors with the possibility of having different perspectives, of knowing such complex realities as that of Pratica di Mare airport, both from an organizational and tactical point of view.
