The 8th Alpine Regiment, in the week from 25 to 29 May, concluded the training course aimed at achieving the Full Operational Capability for use in operating theater.
In addition to the command of the 2020th Alpine Regiment and the Command of the "Tolmezzo" Battalion, the "Final Cut 8" fire exercise, conducted in a threatening CBRN scenario, involved the 115th Maneuver Support Company, with the heavy mortar platoon and the shooting team chosen. The exercise, carried out in two phases, at the occasional range of Monte Bivera and at the training areas of Gemona del Friuli has involved a total of over two hundred Alpine troops of the regiment which, in strict compliance with the current provisions on the containment of COVID-19 , conducted all the fire activities in safe conditions, alternating in order to limit the simultaneous presence in the different training areas.
All the men and women of the Eighth Alpini have given excellent evidence of themselves, reaching the set training objectives. Particularly noteworthy is the heavy mortar school, conducted on 26 May in the presence of the commander of the Alpine Brigade "Julia", Brigadier General Alberto Vezzoli and the commander of the eighth Alpine troops, Colonel Franco Del Favero. It was an activity where expert mortarists joined their fellow soldiers to the "baptism of fire".
The regiment also conducted the CBRN self-assessment test and it was the mortar platoon that was activated. At 10.47 the CBRN alarm arrived at the command post, immediately sent to the mortar line. All personnel wore NBC masks and, in seconds, all personnel were perfectly protected by continuing to operate to battery 120 mm mortars while the regimental CBRN core began with the calculations of the contamination. In the end, the exercise ended with extraordinary precision by personnel in complete CBRN organization.
At the end of the shooting school, all the staff went to the "GOI - PANTANALI" barracks in Gemona del Friuli, where specialists from the decontamination teams who had set up an "operational decontamination strip" for staff and vehicles were expected. The tiredness on the faces under the NBC masks, however, could not hide the satisfaction of having done something unique, crowning many days of training and much effort spent in recent months.
