YEAR OF BIRTH: 1941
MILITARY SERVICE: 1962 – 1964
ASSIGNMENT: 114th Infantry Regiment “Mantova”
LOCATION: Cormons (GO)
ROLE: Infantry Sergeant (Armoured Troops)
Francesco Fondrini, born in Milan in 1941, departed for Caserta at the end of 1962 to attend the Non-Commissioned Officers’ School. After approximately six months of training, he was transferred to Cormons (Province of Gorizia), where he joined the 114th Infantry Regiment “Mantova”.
At the time, the regiment was considered a frontline unit of the Italian Army and was equipped with M-47 tanks and the newly introduced French AMX-12 armoured personnel carriers. He carried out his service only a few kilometres from the Italian–Yugoslav border and personally experienced the heightened tensions following the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Discharged in the early months of 1964, he subsequently worked as an employee in the private sector until retirement. He currently resides in Pieve Tesino, in the Province of Trento.
