New commander for the Alpine troops of the “Taurinense” brigade

(To Army Majority State)
18/10/24

General David Colussi is the new commander of the Alpine Brigade “Taurinense”, after the handover with General Enrico Fontana, which took place this morning in front of the War Flags of the 1st Alpine Command and Tactical Support Department, the 3rd Alpine Regiment and the “Taurinense” Logistic Regiment. General Michele Risi – Commander of the Alpine Troops of the Army, the civil, religious and military authorities of the City, the Province and the Region were present.

During the ceremony, a farewell was also paid to the Italian military contingent led by the brigade who recently returned from Lebanon, where they were employed as part of the United Nations operation UNIFIL.

During the period of command of General Fontana, the Alpine Brigade "Taurinense" and its units experienced a particularly intense operational cycle, the main commitment of which was that of the Leonte XXXV contingent in Lebanon, whose structure was formed by the 3rd Alpine Regiment together with the Logistic Regiment Taurinense and Nice Cavalry (1°). Elements of the 1st Land Artillery Regiment, the 32nd Engineer Corps and the 1st Alpine Tactical Command and Support Unit also contributed to the operation.

Major General Michele Risi, commander of the Army's Alpine troops, highlighted in his speech “the centrality of the preparation and training of each individual Alpine soldier and each unit, from the regiment to the team, from the staff to the mountain combat experts, so that they are ready to competently and effectively face an increasingly multifaceted typology of missions that involve a certain level of risk for the safety and objectives of the mission itself”.

La Taurinense It has been used on many other fronts: the “Cuneense” contingent based on the 2nd Alpine Regiment in the NATO exercise “Nordic Response 2024” in Norway, beyond the Arctic Circle; the 9th Alpine Regiment, deployed with the NATO KFOR mission in Kosovo; the 1st Mountain Artillery which operated alongside the Police Forces in the “Strade Sicure” operation, within the Val Susa-Valle d'Aosta and Piedmont-Liguria groupings.

The use of specialists from the 32nd Engineers was significant, engaged in the clearance of war remnants throughout the north-west of the country - with approximately 2000 devices rendered harmless in 2023 alone - and in ensuring support to the Civil Protection in the event of natural disasters. Also noteworthy was the activity of the mountain safety units in the ski areas and the weather and snow monitoring carried out by the operators of the Meteomont service on the Alpine and Apennine arc.