Dino Marcellino visits the latest Chinooks of the Italian Army’s 3rd Special Operations Helicopter Regiment and learns about the particular mind-set required for this unit’s demanding field of work.
Italian Army special ops
The northern limit of the ancient Roman Empire is found approximately along the modern border between England and Scotland. Here, in 122 AD, Roman troops began construction of a 72-mile-long (117km) defensive fortification, now known as Hadrian’s Wall. The garrison detached there to defend the extreme border of the empire used the Latin motto ‘Durabo’ – which can be translated as, ‘I will survive’. Nowadays, ‘Durabo’ is the motto of the 3° Reggimento Elicotteri per Operazioni Speciali (3° REOS, 3rd Special Operations Helicopter Regiment). This is the newest unit within the Aviazione dell’Esercito (AVES, Italian Army Aviation), having been formed on November 10, 2014. Beginning in around 2010, the Italian Army General Staff made concerted efforts to reorganise and expand its special forces. The influence of new terror threats, in some cases operating as rogue states, presented different challenges and non-conventional conflict scenarios. The creation of the 3° REOS was a direct res…
