Sky Soldiers, Camisanesi bond over bocce Story and photos by Laura Kreider USAG Vicenza PAO
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ootball and baseball loving Soldiers from Bravo Company, Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) played a different kind of ball game recently. The Sky Soldiers were invited to play the traditional Italian sport of bocce March 15 in the nearby town of Camisano, where they learned some new bowling techniques while strengthening personal relationships between the Italian and American communities. The bocce took place at the Camisano bocciodromo, an indoor bowling arena, as a gesture of thanks and recognition for the Soldiers’ participation in a number of service projects in Camisano over the past six months. “A large majority of these projects have involved the Camisano Chapter of the Alpini Association,” said Capt. Kevin Ryan, Military Intelligence commander of Company B. “We’ve painted the local school and helped clean up the landscape of the Alpini building, among other projects. This past Saturday, 1st Lt. [Matthew] Arevian and Sgt. 1st Class [Christopher] Edwards led 30 members of their platoon and families in a bocce ball game with the Alpini in Camisano.”
Gratitude and play Mayor of Camisano Renzo Marangon presented 1st Lt. Matthew Arevian, who represented the platoon, with two plaques expressing the town’s gratitude for the Soldiers’ service before play got under way. “I am honored to have here in Camisano the Soldiers from the 173rd Brigade and see how our bonds of friendship and partnership between the American and Camisano communities develop and become stronger,” said Marangon. Once the bocce got rolling, the three game lanes inside the arena became Spc. Grasiano Torres bowls during friendly rounds of bocce between townspeople and a sort of sports theater for several Soldiers from Bravo Co., BSB, 173rd Airborne at the Camisano bocciodromo March 15. matches between American and Ital-
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THE OUTLOOK
March 28, 2014