Marco Bertolini

Marco Bertolini shakes hands with David McKiernan

Marco Bertolini (born June 21, 1953 in Parma , Emilia-Romagna ) is a retired lieutenant general of the Italian army . In 2009, he was Chief of Staff of the ISAF troops in Afghanistan and most recently, until the end of June 2016, Commander of the Operations Command of the Italian Armed Forces .

Military career

Bertolini was trained from 1972 to 1976 at the Military Academy in Modena and Turin and then served in the 9th Paratrooper Assault Battalion Col Moschin in Livorno . As head of a special forces company , he took part in a peace mission in Lebanon between September 1982 and June 1983 . After completing general staff training in Civitavecchia and a brief assignment in the operations department of the Army General Staff, he commanded the Col Moschin special forces battalion from 1991 to 1993 . Bertolini operated with parts of the battalion from December 1992 to June 1993 in Somalia , where he and his soldiers were involved, among other things, in violent skirmishes in Mogadishu . Until 1997 he was Chief of Staff of the Folgore Paratrooper Brigade in Livorno, and from June 1996 to April 1997 in Bosnia and Herzegovina he was also Chief of Staff of the Multinational Brigade North in Sarajevo . From 1997 to 1999 Bertolini commanded the 9th Paratrooper Assault Regiment Col Moschin , from December 1998 to April 1999 he was also chief of staff of the multinational Extraction Force in Macedonia . From 1999 to 2001 he headed the air landing school in Pisa , then briefly became deputy commander of the Folgore paratrooper brigade and finally its commander as brigadier general until 2004. He operated with parts of the brigade from June to September 2003 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

On June 29, 2004 Bertolini was transferred to the General Staff of the Italian Armed Forces, where he was commissioned to set up a new armed forces command for the operations of all Italian special forces. This new command ( COFS ) began its service in December 2004 and Bertolini remained at its head as major general until the end of 2008 .

In January 2009 he took over the post of Chief of Staff of the ISAF in Afghanistan from the German General Hans-Lothar Domröse . During this use, he criticized in a short letter to the editor the Corriere della Sera derogatory remarks by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi about the Afghanistan mission. In response to this, Bertolini was appointed commander of a territorial command in Florence in December 2009 , which mainly takes on administrative tasks.

In February 2012 Marco Bertolini became Lieutenant General in command of the operational command of the Italian armed forces in Rome-Centocelle . On July 1, 2016, he gave up this post to Vice Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone and retired.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ General Bertolini's letter to the editor of January 29, 2009 to the Corriere (it.) With reference to the novel The Tatar Desert .

Web links

• Official biography on the COFS pages (English)