Marco Meneghello, an Italian hero
The mayor of Guidonia praised the heroism of Major Marco Meneghello because he avoided the much more devastating impact against the buildings. Heroes are not born, but made. Guiglia's notebook
Only the investigation by the Tivoli prosecutor's office will be able to ascertain what happened yesterday just before noon in the skies of Guidonia, in the province of Rome. So far it is known that two Air Force aircraft in training collided five hundred meters from the ground, one crashing in a field far from the town, the other among the houses of unbelieving residents. The two pilots died.
However, it is not necessary to wait for the verdict of the magistrates to be able to already grasp the only certainty of the tragedy: before crashing, the pilots did the impossible to avoid hitting and involving the locals.
In particular, Major Marco Meneghello, who was flying together with Lieutenant Colonel Giuseppe Cipriano at the helm of the other plane, according to the unanimous testimonies of those who witnessed the drama, “did something to avoid the buildings, he dodged them. A ploy to pardon us”.
And the mayor, Mauro Lombardo, praised Meneghello's heroism, because he avoided the much more devastating impact against the buildings, "in a narrow street, avoiding even the houses".
Heroes are not born, but made. In the case of the pilots of our Air Force, an Italian excellence which this year celebrates its centenary, we become heroes because there are values. Like that of safeguarding the lives of others before anything else.
DISCIPLINE AND LOVE
Therefore, the virtues that count, and which are engraved in our Constitution, are not only discipline and honor. It is also love. The love of country and love for others to push so many boys and girls to wear the uniform to fly. And to dream of making it higher and higher in the name of a passion and a profession. For your loved ones and for Italy.
It is not true, then, that “the peoples who have no need of heroes” would be blessed, according to the famous phrase of the playwright Bertolt Brecht.
Peoples, on the contrary, build heroes every day in normality, with principles and values that, in an unforgiving hour, always emerge.
The hero is not Superman, but a quiet and hitherto unknown Veronese gentleman next door, the 46-year-old Major Marco Meneghello.
Faced with a terrible event, which required choices in seconds, he decided to save the others. Blessed are the peoples who have Marco Meneghello's values. Simply an Italian hero.
Published in L'Arena di Verona, Il Giornale di Vicenza and Bresciaoggi
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/marco-meneghello-eroismo/ on Sun, 12 Mar 2023 07:33:57 +0000.