From World War II to the present day, we have a common element in the military deployment of airborne units: the difficulty of the mission. When the bar is raised, where the fight is harder and the risk greater, the commands of armies around the world have, without exception, always sent their most reliable soldiers: PARACHUTISTS. From El Alameinthrough theOperation Varsity in 1945, the (re)conquest of the Islands Fakland-Malvinas in the 1982 war of the same name, the 1993 Battle of Check Point Pasta, l'Operation Barras in Sierra Leone in 2000, theFolgore advance in Afghanistan against the Taliban in 2009-2011, we have a common denominator: PARACHUTISTS.
Now more than ever, with war at Europe's doorstep, the Italian government's Ministry of Defence has placed the armed forces in the hands of an extraordinary Parachute Officer, Air Force Gen. Carmine Masiellowhile there are numerous Parachute officers at the top of the Armed Force.
And it is no secret that the Folgore Parachute Brigadesince its rebirth, throughout the Cold War erawas, also for geographical reasons given Italy's position on the border with a communist country, Yugoslavia, the first major barrage unit in the event of a war conflict with the Soviet Union.
The conscript paratroopers underwent intensive training in just 10-12 months. Just think of theOperation Cold Stream of 1971infamous for the Meloria tragedyAt the command of the legendary General Ferruccio Brandiformer Lieutenant Gold Medalist in El Alamein396 paratroopers divided into 10 aircraft, 15 seconds apart, went to the launch. It was an impressive exercise, the likes of which had never before been carried out in the history of the Italian air force and beyond.
In the 1980s the mission in Lebanon consecrates the capability of the Folgore Paratroopers in complex situations.
On 18 September 1982, Lebanese Christian militias massacre 700 civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut. On 20 September 1982, with only 2 (!) days' notice, the Col Moschin Incursors are already in Beirut. On 24 September, 1,000 Paratroopers arrive on Lebanese soil.
The tasks are demanding: ensuring security in the area from the airport to the centre of the capital, escorting local and foreign political, civilian and military personnel and, most difficult of all, protecting themselves from attackers.
Instead, the spring of 1986 will be remembered as full of tension and sky-high adrenalin. Warned by the intelligence services of an impending political and military crisis between the US and Libya, the 5th Parachute Battalion and the 9th Battalion Col Moschin travel to Lampedusa and Pantelleria in record time. It triggers theOperation Sunflower.
On the night of 14 April 1986, the USA bombed Tripoli: a platoon of 15 Cp. 'Diavoli Neri' reinforced by a counter-tank squad and a logistics wing, receives the order at 2 a.m. on 15 April 1986 to leave in full battle gear. The paratroopers receive, still in their underwear, weapons, ammunition and equipment. Tactical flight at very low altitude on C-130s to avoid Libyan anti-aircraft, and escorted by F-104 fighters.
Assault landing on Lampedusa at dawn. Paratroopers deploy. Shot in the barrel, finger on the trigger. In the early afternoon, two roars, the earth shakes, the Americans from the Loran Base rush out to evacuate. Two SS1-Scud missiles are fired at Lampedusa with the aim of hitting the US military installation.
These are hectic hours that threaten to change the history of Italy.
A counter-attack is planned. US presses, Italian government is cautious. The American Delta Force would lead the way with the 9th Btg. Col Moschin in tow. The 5th Parachute Btg. "El Alamein" would finish "the job" with war drops on Tripoli and Benghazi. The 2nd Parachute Btg. "Tarquinia" would defend positions on the Sicilian islands. This is not a film. We are one step away from war. Fortunately, however, the diplomatic line and naval operations prevailed, but this time, since the Second World War, and outside the context of the Cold War, we were one step away from war.
The 1980s continued with intense, tiring, but extremely formative trainings such as the 'Mongoose', the 'Porcupine' and the 'Red Condor'. He who stops is lost. The paratrooper is the ultimate, but sharpest foreign policy tool. And it must remain so for the defence of the nation.
In November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and immediately new scenarios of military involvement opened up: the Middle East again, but no Lebanon, it was Iraq and later the Balkans, with a parenthesis that changed the history of the Folgore and the Italian Army: Somalia.
In 1991, the 5th Parachute Battalion took part in the "Provide Comfort"also known as AIRONE at Iraqi Kurdistandecided under UN Security Council Resolution No. 687 to assist Kurdish refugees oppressed by Saddam Ussein's regime. The paratroopers are deployed in difficult conditions, thousands of kilometres away from the Motherland, providing security and aid to the people fleeing the war while they are later deployed in front of Iraqi forces, pushed northwards by allied pressure.
With patrols, checkpoints and belts, the Paratroopers control a territory up to 1,400 km wide and the entire Zakho-Kirkuk-Baghdad route.
It is 25 July 1992. 300 Paratroopers of the Folgore Brigade land at 4pm at Punta Raisi airport, in Palermo, with weapons and baggage. Others will arrive in the evening. It is not a trip or a prize trip, it is a military operation, with military Paratroopers equipped and armed, on Italian soil.
After the assassination of magistrates Paolo Borsellino and Giovanni Falcone, the State responded with theOperation Sicilian Vespers. In Palermo, the 1,000 paratroopers of the Folgore Brigade, operating through belts, night ambushes, mobile checkpoints and surveillance of important personalities, in close cooperation with the police, face intensive and prolonged shifts. Their exceptional commitment and sense of duty are recognised and celebrated by the entire nation.
3 December 1992: the regiments are still in Sicily. A 'forced' rotation will be necessary: the Folgore is expected at an appointment it cannot miss. It is not a 'normal' peace mission. But of theOperation IBIS in Somalia. The UN has issued resolution number 794 and Italy, together with the United States, is to provide the largest military contingent.
The Folgore is in command of the Italian contingent, and is the only one, together with the USA, entitled to Chapter VII of the UN statute: the one that authorises the use of weapons. All the units are deployed, the reconstituted 183rd Regiment Nembo, 186° e 187th Folgore, 185th Artillery, 1st Tuscania Battalion, 9TH Col Moschin e Logistics Departments.
An unprecedented deployment of forces. Italy can do no wrong. Numerous situations of extreme complexity also culminated in real firefights. The Folgore, although hit straight to the heart in the clashes of the 2 July 1993, comes out holding high Italian military honour.
We are in the mid-1990s and the Parachute Brigade Folgore is in charge, under a mandate from the Defence General Staff, of all special operations on behalf of the armed forces (the COFS and the COMFOSE will arrive several years later): it is the period of the 'Hippocampus'evacuation missions of compatriots in the most turbulent areas of the planet, almost always carried out solo by the Col Moschin raiders with the Air Force alone.
First Yemen, then Rwanda: on 10 May, after landing first in Nairobi and then in Kigali, the Italian incursors, while disembarking from the C-130, came under mortar fire on the airport runway. The military aircraft quickly pulled away from the runway, leaving the Italian forces on Rwandan soil.
Within a week, thanks to numerous missions to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, the raiders successfully completed the evacuation of all the Italians, a feat also made possible by the valour and preparedness of the 46th Airborne Brigade: during the take-off of the last C-130, loaded beyond all expectations, a heavy attack by Soviet ZU-23 anti-aircraft machine guns occurred. According to Raider General Roberto Vannacci, then commander of the Rwanda operation, it was one of the most difficult operations in which the 9th took part.
The last half of the 1990s saw the Parachute Brigade's presence in the Balkans, while in 1999, the Paratroopers of the 187th were deployed to faraway East Timor together with the Tuscania Paratroopers and the Col Moschin Incursors. Located in far south-east Asia, and reachable after more than 24 hours (!) of scheduled flight, East Timer is for the Italians the destination of Operation Interfet, made necessary after the violent actions of groups not in favour of East Timor's independence from Indonesia.
The tactical group of the Folgore had an important task, that of patrolling and providing security for the population in the most difficult and hard-to-reach areas due to the dense vegetation.
The one in East Timor will also be remembered as the farthest mission where an Italian unit was deployed.
The summer of 2001 was the summer of the G8, an international meeting of the most important heads of state on earth.
The FOLGORE is deployed in the red zone of the Genoa airport. Parachutists from the three manoeuvre regiments (183rd, 186th and 187th) act as Public Safety Officers inside the Genoa airport for three days.
They control, stop and search anyone who enters or moves around the airport. They guard the hangars and sensitive points with rules of engagement that are not very reassuring for anyone in the mood to be a hero: unconditional fire to anyone who wants to enter the airport without authorisation or who even approaches the fence, even outside.
Parachutists were given a very important task on 20 July: to guard the perimeter of the Air Force One of US President George W. Bush.
11 September 2001: changing the world. The Folgore is ready.
In April 2004, a detachment of the Col Moschin, on the outskirts of Nassirya, was ambushed by L.
A little luck, and a very high combat ability in tight spaces allows the raiders to save their skins and neutralise all the militia (about ten).
The Middle East is the most challenging scenario, but there is still glory for the Folgore in the Balkans: in March 2004, the 186th Regimentin yet another mission in Kosovo (the third in three years!) called Determined Effort, will be of crucial help to the ethnic Serbian population.
The unit will be forced to intervene to defend monasteries and protect villages during the riots of 17 and 18 March. The paratroopers, not at all intimidated by the violent attitude of the rioters, will be forced to respond with arms to the repeated assaults.
For the splendour of those days, the regiment's flag was again decorated with a silver medal, as was the case in Somalia.
In June 2006, the legendary Task Force 45the largest deployment of special forces ever fielded by Italy since the post-war period. In July of the same year, under the command of Lt-Col Roberto Vannacci, it was already operating in the Afghan mountains, participating in the infamous 'Medusa' operation. Initially, it was made up of incursors from the 9th Assault Regiment 'Col Moschin' and the GOI, Gruppo Operativo Incursori della Marina Militare (COMSUBIN), and later expanded to include units from the Italian Army's FOS and other special forces units from all the armed forces.
2009-2011 Mission of War. We understand that for political correctness you have to call, the one in Afghanistan, 'peace mission', indeed, for constitutional reasons we should call any military operation a 'peace mission'. However, if you talk to a parachutist who between 2009 and 2011 participated in the ISAF missions in Afghanistan, you will see that that mission was not really about peace...
There is war in Afghanistan. And the paratroopers, a little scrupulously, a little romantically, know that their time has come, whatever the cost, even the supreme sacrifice.
The conformation and status of the brigade, with the three battalions of the manoeuvre regiments deployed on the front line, supported by one of the Army's best engineer divisions (8th Rgt.) and the high level of preparation of the troops, at an all-time high, will yield unprecedented results in the fight against the Taliban.
El Alamein Base (Farah), base Tarquinia (Shouz) e base Tobruk (Bala Boluk) will represent three crucial points that will be of paramount importance in the success of the mission.
The three regiments, deployed between Herat, Kabul and Farah, inflicted a heavy blow on the Taliban and in the numerous firefights the fundamentalist militia was forced to strongly moderate its fighting ardour.
The Folgore paratroopers will be the first Italians to be filmed in combat in Afghanistan (6 October 2009), thanks to RAI journalist Nico Piro. Images never seen before and discordant, indeed, with the peace mission label given to the Italian mission in Afghanistan.
In July 2009 he lost his 1st Major Parachutist Alessandro Di Lisiobut the toughest day is 17 September 2009. Six Paratroopers fell after an attack with an explosive charge of over 150kg near the Kabul airfield. Shot straight through the heart, the Parachute Brigade nevertheless went ahead and left numerous wounded on the battlefield and another fallen, on 25 July 2011, the 1st Major Parachutist David Tobini.
In the following years, the Brigade will be deployed to train soldiers of local forces both in Afghanistan, with Operation Resolute Supportas much as in Niger and Mali with Operation MISIN.
We live in the terrivile period of COVID, a millennium closes and another one opens.
24 February 2022 Russian Army invades Ukrainian territory thus marking an abrupt escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict that has been ongoing since 2014. Europe and the United States apply heavy economic and financial sanctions on Putin's country and heavily arm the Ukrainian armed forces, but this is not enough, and history is as it is today: more than two years after the start of the conflict, the Russians are advancing and bombs continue to fall on the Ukrainian population.
The situation on the international scene, and specifically at Europe's doorstep, is complex.
NATO has an obligation, according to Article 5, should Russian operations extend over an Atlantic Alliance country, to act militarily in defence of the invaded country. Article 5 of NATO in fact presupposes armed intervention and sanctions collective defence: if a NATO member nation were to be attacked, the others would be obliged to intervene with all their available means, including military ones.
Italy must BE READY. So something happens that has never been seen in Italy since the existence of the military speciality of the Paratroopers (1941 with the Folgore Division): on 15 February 2024, the Council of Ministers, at the express request of Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, appointed a Parachute Officer as Chief of Staff of the Italian Army. The Super Commander. The man of steel. Excellence among excellences: Army Parachutist General Carmine Masiello.
An exceptionally valuable curriculum, deep military experience between air forces, special operations, intelligence, but also a holistic view of the armed forces.
Masiello surrounds himself with men of the highest military calibre: within a few weeks, the armed force is revolutionised.
Top people in Top places. Paratroopers of course, but let's not be provincial, there are also outstanding Commanders in the other specialities of the Army. Commander Masiello is aware of this and is forging the Armed Forces using ONLY the best excellences.
We are not warmongers. We firmly believe that diplomacy is the best response in the face of international escalation. However, we must consider that we are talking about the Army, the nation's largest armed force, whose primary task is to defend our territories if, unfortunately, diplomatic solutions are not sufficient.
General Carmine Masiello would have been an inconvenient man in the past. "Too capable". Failure to appoint Marco Bertolini as Chief of EMS docet. Our politicians would have said "We are in a time of Peace, we don't need a Chief of EMS of such a level".. But we are not in times of peace. We are in times of war.
And the Paracadustia, once again, responded PRESENTLY.
