54 years have passed since the tragic days of Kindu, the first international mission that the Air Force, with the personnel and vehicles of the 46 ^ Pisa air brigade, faced after the Second World War.
With that mission, which sought to restore order in the Congo upset by the civil war, under the aegis of the UN, that series of humanitarian-type interventions began to materialize, today generically identified in the "peace-keeping" activities. The military aeronautics, thanks to the profuse commitment in that operation, without saving of men and means, received the international applause.
In that fateful 11 November 1961, however, the armed force paid a high price in terms of human lives: 13 aviators, crews of two C-119 aircraft of the 46 ^ air brigade, were captured and killed by Congolese soldiers, who had exchanged them for Belgian mercenaries involved in the conflict.
The news of the brutal massacre caught the country by surprise. The dramatic reports, the journalistic chronicles of the gruesome massacre horrified and startled the Nation, which ideally clung to the families of the fallen, in an incredible race of solidarity.
For the military aeronautics, remembering Kindu's slaughter is always a cause for emotion and, at the same time, pride. The 13 aviators, the first to fall into a mission at the service of the international community after the Second World War, are still today a symbol of the commitment and sacrifice that the struggle for peace requires.
