« Porto Torres also gave its contribution of young lives in the First World War , with 66 boys who died in combat and were unable to return home to their loved ones and families , whose names we engraved on a marble plaque and placed at the entrance of our town hall so that their sacrifice may never be forgotten». Words of the mayor of Porto Torres, Massimo Mulas , on the occasion of the ceremony of November 4 dedicated to the Day of National Unity and the Armed Forces.
After the Holy Mass, celebrated by Monsignor Salvatore Masia, at the church of the Beata Vergine della Consolata, the mayor together with some representatives of the municipal administration, as per tradition, paid homage to the memory of all the fallen of the Great War with a solemn celebration held in Piazza Umberto I° with the gathering of military, civil and religious authorities and representatives of the Veterans' Associations in front of the monument to the fallen.
"Today the world is going through a difficult and uncertain historical moment," added Mulas, "not only because of the economic crisis that is struggling to resolve, but also because of the numerous conflicts that characterize many territories and that must push us to commit ourselves to the defense and export of democratic ideals and values."
The rite began with the flag raising and the playing of the national anthem , followed by the reading of the Fighter's Prayer by the president of the Combatants and Veterans Association, Moreno Nocco, and subsequently, with the reading of the motivation for the Unknown Soldier's gold medal for military valor by the president of the Italian Paratroopers Association, Luciano Meloni. At the end, the procession reached the cemetery in via Balai where laurel wreaths were laid on the tombs of the carabiniere Walter Frau and the financier Salvatore Cabitta, both decorated with the gold medal for military valor.
Walter Frau had fallen, with his colleague Ciriaco Carru, in 1995 during a firefight with a gang of robbers in Chilivani; Salvatore Cabitta, unarmed and on leave, had been murdered in 1966 by members of a gang of terrorists from Alto Adige.