We landed on a small base in the Italian Alps on May 22, 2000 –
Alec’s second birthday for our European adventure that would last us the next
four years. Aviano Air Base is the home of the 31st Fighter Wing and is the
only U.S. fighter wing south of the Alps. This strategic location makes the
wing critical to operations in NATO’s southern region. The 31st Fighter Wing
maintains two F-16 fighter squadrons, the 555th Fighter Squadron and the 510th
Fighter Squadron known as “The Triple Nickel” and “The Five and Dime”
respectively, allowing the wing to conduct offensive and defensive combat air
operations.
Aviano Air Base was established by the Italian government in
1911 and was used as training base for Italian pilots and construction facility
for aircraft parts. During World War I, Italy used the airfield in missions
against the Austro-Hungarian and German armies. At that time, two Italian
aviators, Captain Maurizio Pagliano and Lieutenant Luigi Gori, conducted an
unauthorized, but heroic and successful, air raid on the Austrian naval yards
in Pula, in what is now Croatia. In their honor, the base’s name was officially
changed to Aeroporto Pagliano e Gori, in 1919. During the war the airfield was
also overrun by the Austro-German army in the months between November 1917 to
November 1918. Between the two wars the airfield was again used as a training
base. During World War II, both the Italian Air Force and the German Luftwaffe
flew missions from Aeroporto Pagliano e Gori. British forces captured the base
in 1945; they conducted air operations there until 1947, when the Italian Air
Force resumed operational use of the airport.
I have many memories of Aviano. We lived in a small village
called Fanna about a half an hour drive north of the base. The area itself sits
in the middle of wine country, so you can only imagine the views of the
mountains and the vineyards. I would love to visit the area again someday just
to take the sights in. The base is located about an hour north of Venice, which
became an unofficial weekend destination. It was so easy to get around the
country and Europe as a whole. Trains were inexpensive and on time. Driving on
the Autostrada was a dream. During this four-year period, we would find
ourselves driving and riding trains to places like Rome, Pisa, Venice, Vicenza,
and many other places all around Italy. We also traveled extensively to Austria
and Germany. I even had the opportunity to take a “work trip” to England. We
drove from Italy, through Austria, Germany, Belgium, into France where we boarded
a ferry that took us from Calais, France across the Strait of Dover to England,
home of the famed White Cliffs of Dover, driving north up towards Cambridge to
Lakenheath Air Base, all in about 24 hours!
During this time, we met some great people. A family that I
still keep in touch with today, some 14 years after leaving Italy, Sheldon and
Rachael Smith are amazing people in their own right. Our families did so much
together during our time there and I have visited them from time to time since
and vice versa. We took a long weekend trip to Rome together where I nearly got
pick-pocketed. I remember getting on the subway the first night there. At the
time, much of Europe still was cash only, so I had nearly $1000 in my wallet
that night, enough to last us the trip for food, trains, hotels, and souvenirs.
It was a full subway car, so I didn’t think much of it when two young kids, no
older than 10-12 boarded and was right up against me. The next stop, they
departed and an Italian man immediately started pointing at the floor, “your
wallet sir.” What I didn’t realize was that when one was pushing against me,
the other lifted my wallet from my pocket, but luckily dropped it and wasn’t
able to retrieve it as the subway car was so packed. The rest of the trip, the
amount of money that I didn’t leave in the hotel safe stayed in my front pocket
with my hand over it. Other than that it was a great trip. We visited the Trevi
Fountain, Spanish Steps, the Roman Pantheon, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum,
Circus Maximus, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel inside the Vatican,
and ate so much good food! We got our crazy cab driver experience in Rome as
well. There is so much more to see in Rome, but we only had 4 days; I would
love to go back and spend more time there!
Sheldon and I would take trips up to Garmish, Germany for beer
trips a couple times a year. He literally taught me what good beer truly was!
It was also a Pizza Hut stop, something we didn’t have in Aviano…..ahhhhh the
little things! We once went to a festival in Munich called Fruhlingsfest –
sometimes called the “Kleine Schwester des Oktoberfestes,” meaning
“Oktoberfest’s Little Sister.” It is held in the same venue as Oktoberfest, in
the Theresienwiese Park. I remember staying in a hotel across the street from
the park. We thought it would be a great place to stay during Oktoberfest a few
months later; that is until we inquired about the price. If memory serves me,
we stayed there during Fruhlingsfest for under 100 Euro, equivalent to about
$90 at the time. They quoted us a price of over 400 Euro for the Oktoberfest
time frame! So instead, our families rented a cabin in Garmish and took an
hour’s train ride up to Munich to enjoy the festivities! The atmosphere was
electric. People dancing on tables, a huge carnival, beer tents and gardens all
around. People from all over the world drinking liters, and liters, and liters
of beer! And you know what, no fights; could we do that in America? We ate, we
sang silly German songs, and we drank! Memories…….
Melissa, Alec, and I went on some great trips as well. A weekend
in Pisa, though the best part after the half hour that it took to see the
Leaning Tower of Pisa(well maybe more like 5 minutes!) was camping at Camp
Darby and going to the beach on the Mediterranean side of Italy. We also took a
weekend trip up to Vienna, Austria where we got to see the world famous
Lipizzaner horses at The Spanish Riding School of Vienna. Melissa did and still
does love everything horses, so she loved this trip for that reason! Vienna
seemed to be more of a modern city than any other place we visited in Europe.
The only thing I could think of was because much of the country may have been
leveled during World War II.
Thinking about World War II, we had a neighbor who spoke perfect
English. His name was Remo; it was him and his dog, and this man was happy. He
once told me, “You Americans, you live to work. We Italians, we work to live.”
He lived a simple yet wonderful life. I heard he passed away a few years ago,
but his memory will always be with me. He told me stories of Fanna during World
War II when he was just a young boy. He says he remembers a time when a bomb
hit the ground across from our street and exploded; he’s got a scar on his leg
from what he feels was getting hit by shrapnel as he hid behind a tree. Another
that had fallen in the town square yet didn’t detonate. He recalled that the
British military came and took it away after about a week. And finally, when
the Germans were run out of the country, he told me of the young German
soldiers, some that couldn’t be older than 15 just giving away all their
supplies and even during the German occupation of Italy that the German
soldiers treated the locals with dignity and respect, not causing them harm. As
military members, they were but following orders during a difficult situation
at a time of war. The reason he spoke English so well was that when he became
an adult, work was scarce in Italy and so Remo moved to Australia where he
lived until he retired and moved back to Italy to finish his life in his home
country.
The day that changed my world. The day that my military service
became something of meaning. We all know this day as September 11,
2001. I was in Airman Leadership School when we were told that
something was not right on the east coast of the United States. It was the end
of our day; the instructors turned on the television just before United
Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center
complex. A day that I won’t forget the moment I found out; a day like other
generations endured such as the Pearl Harbor attacks or the assassination of
President Kennedy. Here we are, 19 years later, and I still remember this event as
though it just happened yesterday. The Smith family and mine huddled in my
living room until well past midnight reliving the day’s events over and over,
listening to Tom Brokaw and other news broadcasters informing us of the
terrorist attacks that would shape our lives and the define what the United
States Military would come to be for me for the next two decades. Prior to
this, we were primarily containing Saddam Hussain’s regime in Iraq. Osama Bin
Laden would become the new enemy and soon we found ourselves in a war in
Afghanistan and two short years later in Iraq. Today, we are still heavily
involved in the Middle East theater even as our military is shifting towards
the Pacific arena.
Stay tuned for more about Aviano and my second deployment that
would be happening soon……
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