The military ceremony was held on Saturday, May 8, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the operational activity of the Syracuse branch of the Air Force. The ceremony was presided over by Colonel Giancarlo Farina, Commander of the Coordination Center for Radar Groups at Poggio Renatico (Ferrara), an agency whose direct dependencies include the Italian Radar Groups, including the 34th Radar Group of Syracuse. The ceremony was attended by the Prefect of Siracusa, Dr. Carmela Floreno Vacirca, and the highest civil and military authorities of the province, as well as a representative of the citizens’ associations and clubs, and a festive atmosphere with a large audience, composed in good part by a large group of former employees of the 34th Radar Group, currently serving at other agencies and branches of the Armed Forces or on leave, who came to Siracusa from many Italian and even foreign locations. At the opening of the ceremony, Prefect Floreno and Colonel Farina, accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel Salvatore Gissara, Commander of the 34th GRAM, laid a wreath at the memorial stele of Lieutenant Arnaldo De Filippis, in memory of all the aviators who died. The ceremony then continued with speeches by Prefect Floreno, Councillor Giuseppe Speranza on behalf of the Mayor, President of the Province Nicola Bono, Lieutenant Colonel Gissara and Colonel Farina.
In their speech, the civil authorities emphasized the important role played by the department in serving the community. Lieutenant Colonel Gissara and Colonel Farina focused their speeches on the current phase of transformation of the Armed Forces, which will also involve the 34th Radar Group, for which an imminent reorganization is looming. They also presented commemorative plaques to General (r) Giuseppe Pata, commander of the Radar Group from 1977 to 1984, General (r) Fernando Manca, Commander of the Radar Group from 1990 to 1994, and Lieutenant Colonel Salvatore Autiero, immediate predecessor of Lieutenant Colonel Gissara and currently serving at the NATO Command in Izmir (Turkey). A commemorative plaque was also donated to Mrs. Lucia De Filippis, the granddaughter of Lieutenant De Filippis, a World War I hero decorated with the Silver and Bronze Medals for Military Valor, to whom the Syracuse Hydroplane Marina is dedicated, the logistical headquarters of the 34th Radar Group. It was precisely thanks to the valor medals won on the battlefield by the aviator to whom the Hydroplane Marina is dedicated that Mr. Vincenzo Maiore, brother of the Gold Medal for Military Valor Francesco Maiore, presented to Lieutenant Colonel Gissara the heraldic emblem awarded in memory of Lieutenant De Filippis. At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Hydroplane Marina was flown over by an Atlantic aircraft of the 41st Anti-Submarine Squadron of the Aeronautica Militare di Sigonella. On the occasion of the event, a mobile post office of Poste Italiane was opened, where it was possible to have the commemorative stamp made by the 34th GRAM Command affixed, along with postcards whose sale will allow the proceeds to be donated to UNICEF and ONFA (Opera Nazionale dei Figli degli Aviatori) to support projects aimed at children. This is a charitable initiative to which, of course, all the staff currently employed and former staff of the 34th Radar Group also contributed. Starting from the afternoon of the same day, the postcards were made available at the exhibition space of the Palazzo della Provincia in Via Roma, within which the historical-recollection exhibition “I Cieli di Siracusa 2010 – 87 anni di Aeronautica, 50 anni di Difesa Aerea a Siracusa”, organized by the 34th GRAM on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, was inaugurated on Friday, May 7.
For the opening ceremony of the exhibition, the ribbon was cut by the Prefect of Siracusa and Ms. De Filippis, in the presence of a large group of Authorities who were accompanied on a guided tour of the exhibition, which exhibits numerous vintage photographs, military memorabilia, rare historical uniforms and model aircraft of various sizes that, together with multimedia systems, offer the public the opportunity to trace the 87 years of history of the Italian Air Force and a panorama of the evolution of the Siracusa base, first as an aerodrome and, subsequently, as GRAM. A whole section of the exhibition is dedicated to the Group Radar A.M., in which the technological development of the ground component of ‘Air Defence’ is highlighted through the display of the various systems used in the ‘operations room’ from 1960 to the present day. The exhibition’s setup was made possible thanks to the collaboration of important museum institutions such as the Historical Museum of the Italian Air Force in Vigna di Valle (Rome), the Museum of the Piazzaforte in Augusta, the cultural association ‘Lamba Doria’ and the City of Augusta Modelers Group.
