That night, just a few minutes after the earthquake, the first men and women of the Army, coordinated by the prefecture, began to bring their work of aid to the population affected by the great calamity.
The first soldiers were the 9 ° regiment of the Alps and those of the 33 ° artillery regiment that have their headquarters in the city of 99 Cannelle.
Some of these soldiers returned to the barracks to intervene with the rescue teams as soon as the family was rescued and even though their own home was destroyed. This is the case of Marshal Angela Lombardi and Marshal Manuele Ciaraglia, husband and wife who, having lost their home, took their son to safety and then joined their units to go to the aid of the people; Meanwhile, sergeant Matteo Botti, who had a house in a building completely gutted by the shock, who after having his family exfiltrated from the building returned to the rubble and allowed (by breaking through the locked doors of the apartments still occupied) a pregnant woman and a child and 2 men, to then reach the barracks and participate in the aid interventions with their regiment.
In the following hours arrived in the Abruzzi hundreds of men, vehicles, helicopters and airplanes of the Army to rescue the population and arrived on the same day of April 6 to almost 1000 people of the armed force employed in the rescue operations to the population.
The same 6 April were made available to those who needed 10.000 food rations, complete tents were built in Onna, San Demetrio, Collemagno and Monticchio. Some wounded were also transported to the intensive care unit of the "Celio" military hospital in Rome.
The Army reached its maximum effort on 11 April, with 1.406 men and women involved, 9 helicopters (of which 4 CH 47 Chinooks) and 2 Dornier 228 aircraft, over 40 special engineering vehicles for earthmoving, and more than 170 tactical transport vehicles.
In the following weeks, after the first aid operations to the population, the Army vehicles removed over 160.000 tons of rubble.
Today the military of the Army, waiting for L'Aquila to soon return to its former glory, operate in the capital of Abruzzo, as part of the "Safe Roads" operation in competition with law enforcement to ensure vigilance and security for citizens. .
Source: Army Majority Staff
