At the Naval Academy of Livorno, the new officer students of the Navy took solemn oath on Saturday and thus sanctioned their bond of loyalty to the Italian Republic, also becoming part of the Armed Forces and the great maritime family.
Present, for the occasion, the Chief of Staff of the Navy, team admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone who, accompanied by the commander of the Navy Schools, team admiral Enrico Credendino, addressing the young patrons underlined "The Academy tries to teach you how important the sea is, which is the environment where you will express your faculties, where you will work in the future, how important it is for our country, how binding this domain is for our economy, ours democracy, our security ".
The ceremony, held as usual on the first Saturday of December on the occasion of Santa Barbara - but for the first time in static form, with interpersonal distancing and without the presence of the public, for the prevention measures connected to the current health emergency - this year saw 132 first class attendants normal courses, including 26 women and 18 foreign students from Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Libya, Montenegro, Peru, Qatar, Somalia, Senegal, and Ukraine. With the students of the first class they also swore 4 official pilot pupils.
"Always be proud of the life you have undertaken, do not tire of bearing witness with honor to the ethical - moral values at the basis of your choice and feed every day, with courage and curiosity, that emotion that today, in this square, lights up your souls", declared during his speech Rear Admiral Flavio Biaggi, commander of the Naval Academy, before enunciating the formula of the oath.
Immediately afterwards, a vigorous and resonant "I swear!", Shouted by the students, resounded in the historic institute which, for 139 years now, has been training future officers of the Navy.
"The Oath for us young officer cadets represented a special moment, as I am convinced it has been in the past for every naval officer who has passed through these historic walls. Aware of the current difficult period, which we have also tried to exploit as a further opportunity of growth, this solemn moment has reached the culmination of a first phase of particularly intense training that in recent days has also led us to wear the historical uniform for the first time and to receive the sword, the symbol of the Student that we will proudly carry with we", affirmed the 1st class student of the general staff Alessandro Ferraroni.
A step forward the one taken today by the young officer cadets, on the occasion of the solemn Oath, to become men and women of the sea always at the service of the country, and a moment full of meaning which, despite adversity, has kept the secular traditions of the Naval Academy and the Navy.
