As part of his Memorial Day weekend features, MilBlogger “Greyhawk” offers “Per Liberta,” a memoriam to Italian Brigadier Giuseppe Coletta. Coletta, a Sicilian officer in the 13th Regiment of the Carabinieri (military police) of Gorizia, was killed in a Nov. 12, 2003 bomb blast in an-Nasiriyah, Iraq. “Greyhawk” is an active duty 20-year veteran who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The Sovereign Council of the Order of Malta has posthumously conferred on Brigadier Giuseppe Coletta the Gold Medal of Merit with Swords. The decoration acknowledges the value of the Brigadier’s work to the Order’s assistance to the Iraqi population, in particular to the children and families who received essentials such as food, medicine and scholastic materials.