Present were the Minister of Defense, Senator Roberta Pinotti, the Chief of Defense, Admiral Luigi Binelli Mantelli, the Army Chief of Staff, General Claudio Graziano, and the general commander of the Carabinieri, General Leonardo Gallitelli .
The army chief of staff, after greeting and thanking the intervening authorities and guests, addressed the official students of the 195 "Impeto" course, recalling the history of the prestigious Institute and the values that formed the guide of the officers formed at the Military Academy.
General Graziano urged the students to base their "lifestyle on sobriety, concreteness, intellectual and professional honesty, respect for institutions and courage, rightly considered the first of human qualities and certainly the fundamental for a commander, because it is the one that guarantees all the others ".
"The same qualities must also accompany you in the demanding service abroad, an area in which the Army has guaranteed the main effort in terms of human and material resources, with 75% of the total forces used in the various missions during the which paid a very high tribute of blood ".
"Courage is necessary both in operations outside the borders and in daily operations in the national territory at the service of the community, as well as in training that also presents risks related to life and the uniqueness of the military condition".
The Chief of Staff of the Army then recalled the figures of Major Giuseppe La Rosa, gold medal for Military Valor in Memory, who fell in Afghanistan last year, of General Calligaris and Captain Lozzi, who fell in service following an accident during a training flight.
General Graziano then indicated to the students "the moment of profound transformation of the armed force with the constant aim of effectively confronting the new operational requirements with the ambitious, though indispensable, objective of reducing the quantitative dimensions of the terrestrial instrument without affecting it, at the same time, operational efficiency and maintaining the quality standards of the armed force. "
"A modernization - he concluded - which must be aimed at the safety of personnel in operations and which also means having systems capable of guaranteeing knowledge of the information situation and the indispensable operational interoperability with friendly and allied countries".
In the same ceremony the title of "ad honorem cadet" was given to Mrs. Silvia Guarda, mother of an early student who died.
The 195 course "Impeto" is composed of 164 Official Students, of which 25 women.
The academy also hosts 27 foreigners from Afghanistan, Albania, Jordan, Armenia, Niger, Thailand and Libya.
The military academy, currently commanded by the army general, Giuseppenicola Tota, was established on January 1 of the 1678 under the name of the Royal Academy and is the oldest military training institute in the world, preceding the Russian academy in St. Petersburg , the Royal Military Academy, the Ecole Royale Militaire and West Point.
Source: Army Majority Staff
