{"id":192475,"date":"2024-06-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=192475"},"modified":"2024-06-03T11:55:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-03T11:55:49","slug":"soldiers-lend-a-hand-to-italian-partners-after-vicenza-floods-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=192475","title":{"rendered":"Soldiers lend a hand to Italian partners after Vicenza floods"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n VICENZA, IT- After flooding affected two local towns, Isola Vicentina and Castelnuovo, 25 members of the Vicenza Military Community quickly responded in volunteer efforts where they distributed sandbags and other supplies, cleared debris, and supported the emergency response teams.
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\n VICENZA, IT- After flooding affected two local towns, Isola Vicentina and Castelnuovo, 25 members of the Vicenza Military Community quickly responded in volunteer efforts where they distributed sandbags and other supplies, cleared debris, and supported the emergency response teams.
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Back to\u00a0U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

VICENZA, Italy \u2013 After flood waters struck Isola Vicentina, Lt. Col. Jae Marquis gathered a team of 14 Soldiers and unit family members, gathered supplies and headed out to lend a hand.<\/p>\n

Marquis, commander of the 509th Signal Battalion<\/a>, 2d Theater Signal Brigade<\/a>, has built a strong rapport with the town \u2013 just north of Vicenza \u2013 through U.S. Army Garrison Italy<\/a>\u2019s Community Alliance Partnership<\/a> program, a community relations program that partners U.S. Army units with local Italian communities.<\/p>\n

For two days they cleared debris, distributed sandbags to protect homes and local businesses and assisted local emergency response teams in Isola Vicentina and nearby Castelnuovo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe volunteer opportunity, for us, was a way for us to give back to our host nation,\u201d Marquis said. \u201cWe are guests here and we need to do our part to be good visitors to the host nation and their residents.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As they began work, a call went out for volunteers in the Vicenza Military Community. Soon there were 25 Soldiers, spouses, U.S. Army civilians and local nationals on hand \u2013 not only from the 509th, but also the 173rd Airborne Brigade<\/a> and U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On May 15, heavy rains caused flooding across the Vicenza area. The next morning, Isola and several other towns woke to mudslides, flooded homes and damaged roads. More rain followed in the days ahead, saturating the ground and swelling local rivers. More than 1500 people in Isola Vicentina were displaced.<\/p>\n

Thomas Derr, a U.S. Army civilian, heard the call and hopped in his van. He didn\u2019t even stop to change the new shoes he wore, which were ruined during the cleanup. That was nothing compared to the devastation families faced in Isola due to the flood waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us it\u2019s over. For them, especially as it continues to rain, it\u2019s still going,\u201d Derr said. \u201cFor us to give back, it\u2019s really what we\u2019re all about, especially within the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tizziano Volpi, an Isola Vicentina resident who has worked for the U.S. Army for 31 years, was among those who helped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI live in the hills, where there was no water, but I went down to help people from Isola, my friends,\u201d Volpi said.<\/p>\n

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\n VICENZA, IT- After flooding affected two local towns, Isola Vicentina and Castelnuovo, 25 members of the Vicenza Military Community quickly responded in volunteer efforts. They were recognized at the Community and Leaders Information Forum for their support by Col. Scott Horrigan, Garrison Commander, and Col. Froehlich, of Southern European Task Force, Africa.
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During the May 22, 2024, Community & Leaders Information Forum, Col. Scott Horrigan, USAG Italy\u2019s commander, and Col. Chad Froelich, chief of staff at SETAF-AF, recognized all 25 volunteers and thanked them for their support.<\/p>\n

Afterward Marquis\u2019s wife, Anastasia, said she didn\u2019t think twice as she knew how important it was to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime we get the opportunity to help each other and show the community what we\u2019re also here for \u2013 to get involved,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

About 509th Signal Battalion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 509th Signal Battalion provides reliable, resilient, and ready communications throughout Italy, the Balkans, the Black Sea Region, NATO’s Southern Flank, and Africa, to enable mission command capabilities for the Warfighter.<\/p>\n

About SETAF-AF<\/strong><\/p>\n

SETAF-AF serves as a dedicated headquarters under U.S. Africa Command<\/a> and U.S. Army Europe & Africa<\/a>, coordinating Army activities across Africa to provide scalable crisis response options.<\/p>\n

For further details on SETAF-AF’s activities, please visit www.setaf-africa.army.mil.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 2 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 VICENZA, IT- After flooding affected two local towns, Isola Vicentina and Castelnuovo, 25 members of the Vicenza Military Community quickly responded in volunteer efforts where they distributed sandbags and other supplies, cleared debris, and supported the emergency response teams. (Photo Credit: Courtesy) VIEW ORIGINAL 2 \/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192477,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-192475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=192475"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192481,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192475\/revisions\/192481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/192477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=192475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=192475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=192475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}