The exercise, which involved about 1000 army men, civil protection, firefighters and state police, departed from the airport of the military aviation "G. Allegri ”and continued along the river Bacchiglione.
The exercise scenario, which involved the flooding of the river, the discovery of a war device and radiological material, made it possible to verify and integrate the joint intervention procedures in situations of crisis and natural disasters.
The army chief of staff, General Claudio Graziano, in a meeting with journalists on the sidelines of the event, stressed that "the army departments located throughout Italy constitute an automatic response in the event of natural disasters and represent a resource for the country ".
The prefect Franco Gabrielli, head of the civil protection department, said "the exercises are done to test the resources we have on the territory and that of today is a really important test. In the civil protection system the armed forces in general, and those of earth in particular, they are a fundamental asset in all their articulations and specialties ".
In anticipation of the complex international exercise of civil protection "Odescalschi 2016", which will be held jointly with colleagues from the Swiss army, the Hon. Norman Gobbi, State Councilor of the Swiss Federation of Canton Ticino and the Gen. D. Marco Cantieni, commander of the 3 territorial region.
In the last winter the army intervened throughout the country with about 800 men and 150 means to rescue populations affected by natural disasters, distributing around 2000 hot meals and 6000 quintals of humanitarian aid and defused more than 700 ordnance.
The event will end on Saturday 21 June in the town hall square, with a static exhibition of media and materials of some military units that intervened (the “Serenissima” lagoon regiment and 8 ° the genius guastasi regiment) and other institutional and voluntary organizations that have taken part in the "Galileo 2014".
Source: Army Majority Staff
