The ceremony, presided over by air brigadier general Francesco Saverio Agresti, commander of the 1st special operations air brigade, was attended by representatives of the joint command for special forces operations and the representatives of the counterparts of the special forces of the army, navy and carabinieri .
The simple but evocative ceremony saw its most significant moment in the delivery, by the commander of the 17 ° Stormo Incursori, Colonel Glauco Luigi Mora and the commanders of the operational and training groups, of the symbols that characterize the AM Raider: the colored Basque sand, which represents the specialty of military air force raider, the dagger that characterizes the boldness of these men and the mission assigned to them and finally, the raid patent with the relative patch of the "Arditi Destroyers of the Royal Air Force" emblem of continuity department history.
Colonel Mora in his speech underlined that "the 17 ° Stormo Incursori is the youngest of the special forces departments and the youngest Air Force Wing; it is putting all its energy into the goal of fully acquiring all the skills inherent in planning and conduct of special operations in the third dimension, in particular with the development of professionalism envisaged by the Special Operation Air to Land Integration (SOALI) doctrine ". The commander then addressed a message to the new raiders urging them to always pursue the assigned mission with courage and determination, in compliance with the motto "Sufficit Animus", "just dare".
Brigadier General Agresti then took the floor to congratulate the new raiders who have demonstrated that they have the requisites to fully become part of the elite sector represented by the special forces departments of the Italian armed forces. He then underlined that the peculiarity of the AM raiders will be to be able to use means of transport on fixed and rotary wing, in order to be able to guarantee the development of professionals such as Combat Controller and Combat weather to effectively integrate land capabilities. and amphibians.
The 17 ° Stormo Incursori, which received the flag of war in March 2009, is in possession of full operational capability to work both in inter-force contexts, with other special forces, and in NATO and coalition contexts, operating with excellent results jointly to national special forces and other countries.
It has been present in Afghanistan, as part of the ISAF operation, for eight consecutive years. In this context, his staff had the honor of earning three bronze medals for aeronautical value.
Source: 17 ° Wing Incursori - Furbara (RM) - chap. Cristina Ferdinandi