The commemoration ceremony of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Aviation Training Center of the Army (CAAE). Also present at the celebration were the commander of the Army Aviation, Brigadier General Paolo Riccò, the president of the National Army Aviation Association, the families of the fallen in service and numerous civil, religious and military authorities.
General Errico, who in the 2005 was the 24 commander of the Center, recalled his experience started as an official pilot student and continued as a flight and specialty instructor, highlighting the personal connection with the Institute. During his speech he stressed that in all these years the specialty "has made great strides. An extraordinarily rapid evolutionary process that this Center, thanks to the exceptional expertise and the commendable professionalism of its instructors and its specialized flight and ground personnel, has been able to facilitate, training and qualifying hundreds of pilots and technicians. "
The commander of the AVES Training Center, Brigadier General Giancarlo Mazzieri, recalled the history and development of the school, born in Bracciano as the "Army Light Aviation Training Center" in 1957, then moved to Viterbo, to become " Army Aviation Training Center ". Today it is the Institute responsible for training all pilots and aircraft technicians of the Army, a real center of national excellence, trains crews and flight units to Forward Medical Evacuation, or all those procedures aimed at the care and recovery of injured personnel in a hostile operating environment. In fact, there have been numerous training activities carried out by the unit in the last year: training courses for pilots and technicians, courses Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE), First Aid and Survival in favor of the Lebanese Armed Forces, airport firefighting courses, courses for winch operator, courses for onboard machine gunners. Hundreds of qualified visitors and more than 3300 flight hours in the last year. A constantly evolving process, always accompanied by a marked propensity for updating and in full integration with the operational team, fully borrowing the "dual spirit" of the Armed Force, both in foreign territory and at home, in support of the populations affected by disasters .
An ideal journey into memory and an exciting journey of growth and deep cohesion, which General Mazzieri wanted to express with these words: "it was and always will be a great family", which from the 1971 sees in the unmistakable blue beret the element of color and belonging to the specialty and in particular to the CAAE.
It is in this spirit that the numerous guests were able to meet again in the photographs on display at the exhibition set up for the event. On the occasion of the anniversary a philatelic cancellation of the Italian Post Office was prepared, a single number edited by the National Army Aviation Association and a limited series of lithographs specially created for the occasion by Giorgio Ciancia, instructor pilot and illustrator of the Italian army.
