In Pisa, a Mass was celebrated in memory of the thirteen fallen soldiers and an art exhibition was set up.
The ceremony, officiated by Monsignor Giovanni Paolo Benotto, Archbishop of Pisa, and concelebrated by the Episcopal Vicar for the Air Force, Monsignor Giorgio Nencini, was attended by Air Force Squadron Commander General Tiziano Tosi, Air Force Brigade Commander General Vincenzo Parma, Commander of the Mobility and Support Forces, Air Force Brigade Commander General Aurelio Colagrande, Commander of the 46th Air Brigade, Mayor of Pisa, On. Marco Filippeschi, and President of the Province of Pisa, Andrea Pieroni.
At the end of the religious service, Monsignor Nencini read the message entrusted to him by the Military Ordinariate, and General Tosi, on behalf of the Chief of the Air Staff, expressed his feelings of closeness to the families and gratitude to the aviators who fell for the supreme example of courage provided. The authorities present then inaugurated an exhibition of video-photographic art created for the occasion.
General Colagrande, addressing the present, emphasized the importance of the celebrations, saying: “
The 46th Air Brigade is celebrating today a sad moment in its history: 50 years ago, in Kindu, in the Congo, thirteen of its aviators were massacred while participating in a mission on behalf of the United Nations. We in the 46th do not know of any other way to honor the memory of all our fallen who sacrificed their lives in the fulfillment of the assigned duties, except for following their example of selflessness and sense of duty.”.
Mayor Filippeschi, for his part, wanted to express words of closeness to the relatives of the victims and to the 46th Air Brigade, for an event that, despite being fifty years ago, is more alive than ever in the collective memory.“
The Fall of Kindu – said the Mayor –
they are children of the city of Pisa”.
The tragedy of Kindu occurred during the first international mission in which the Armed Forces participated after the Second World War. The crews of two C-119s of the 46th, which had taken off from Kamina to supply the local garrison of Malian blue helmets stationed in Kindu after the unloading of the material, were captured by about eighty rebels of the Congolese National Army, who, after immobilizing the Malian guard personnel, beat and dragged the Italian military personnel into the city prison. Locked in a cell of the prison, a few hours later they were brutally killed with bursts of machine guns.
On November 11, 1994, the then President of the Republic, Mr. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valor to the thirteen aviators who fell in a peace mission: Major Pilot Amedeo Parmeggiani, Flight Lieutenant Onorio De Luca, Medical Lieutenant Francesco Paolo Remoti, Motorist Marshal Nazzareno Quadrumani, Marine Sergeant Francesco Paga, Sergeant Major EMB Martano Marcacci, Sergeant Major EMB Possenti, Captain Pilot Giorgio Gonelli, Flight Lieutenant Giulio Garbati, Motorist Marshal Filippo Di Giovanni, Marine Sergeant Antonio Mamone, Sergeant Major EMB Armando Fabi, Sergeant Major Nicola Stigliani.
To commemorate the victims of Kindu, the Aeronautical Review, in its issue 6 of 2011, reconstructed, with an article by historian Paolo Farina, the tragic events of November 11, 1961. For the first time, Farina extended the research to the historical-military front of Malaysia, extracting new testimonies. The volume ’Kindu Massacre – 50 years ago the tragedy of the Italian aviators“ is available on the website of the Italian Air Force through the following link
http://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/Documents/KINDU.pdf.
Despite the deep wound inflicted and the vivid memory of the massacre, more than forty years after those tragic events, the 46th Air Brigade once again carried out a mission in Congo in 2006, on behalf of the European Union and the United Nations, in support of the country’s first free elections (EUFOR RD Congo). A C-130J transport aircraft, with 50 men among the flight crew, air riflemen, and specialists, ensured, for six months, the smooth conduct of the country’s first democratic elections. In 210 missions, for a total of over 400 hours of flight, approximately 2,500 passengers and over 800,000 kilograms of materials were transported, including those needed for the installation of the polling stations and the related ballots.
Since the very first missions outside national borders, the transport capability of the 46th Air Brigade’s aircraft has made the Department one of the main tools through which the country has been able to offer aid to populations in difficulty around the world.
The 46th Air Brigade has flown more than 60,000 hours exclusively transporting aid, food, medicine, medical equipment, medical personnel, and field hospitals. Thanks to the load-carrying capabilities of the C-130J and C-27J transport aircraft, the Brigade also performs the valuable service of transporting organs for transplantation and people in imminent life-threatening danger, who are transported on board the aircraft while being able to remain inside the ambulance if necessary. To perform this service, the 46th Air Brigade provides two alert crews ready to depart in 120 or 180 minutes, depending on the needs.
GR1 of 11/11/2011 at 06.35 TGR Toscana from 11/11/2011 at 19:30 TGR Puglia of 13/11/2011 at 14.00 
