With a brief but significant ceremony, Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Della Bona took over this morning from Lieutenant Colonel Giovanni Quartuccio at the head of the Italair Task Group of the UNIFIL Task Force of the same name. The occasion was also that of the delivery of the commemorative medal - a ceremony that under the UN name assumes the name of medal parade - to the staff of the 44 mandate of the Italian flight unit that for thirty-six years guarantees the air movement capacity of the multinational mission south of the Litani river.
It was in fact the 1979 when the first Italian AB 204 helicopters landed on Naqoura beach to take over from the Norwegian colleagues who had secured the service from the beginning of the Unifil mission, the previous year. Since then, Italy has engaged, together with various personnel and unit shifts of the Army Aviation and with the participation of pilots and technicians of Marina and Aeronautics, the AB 205 helicopters up to the 2008 and the current AB 212 twin-engine helicopters.
Lieutenant Colonel Della Bona, with his appointment as commander, slightly anticipated the rotation of the task groups, which will soon start the 45 ° mandate, again on the 2 framework "Sirio" regiment.
Colonel Claudio Luperto, commander of the Italair Task Force who chaired the ceremony, thanked Lieutenant Colonel Quartuccio for the preparation, ability and humility with which he was able to lead the flight unit in the five months of his command, wishing him at the same time more and more satisfactions in the new important tasks that it will cover.
Numerous civil and military authorities were present at the ceremony, including Unifil's Deputy Head of Mission, Imran Riza, and Sector West commander, general Salvatore Cuoci.
