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On October 25, 1955, the Southern European Task Force was first established at Camp Darby, located in Pisa, Italy.
In 1951, the U.S. and Italy signed an agreement that the U.S. would operate lines of communication
across Italy, and that the U.S.
would occupy land near Livorno. This land became Camp Darby, named for Brigadier General William O. Darby, who was killed in action
in northern Italy, April 30, 1945.
All U.S. occupation forces in Austria were withdrawn after the
Austrian State Treaty was signed in 1955. Under provisions of the
agreement with Italy, Camp Darby was the base for the exit of soldiers, equipment and supplies
from Austria.
With Austria neutral, northern Italy’s eastern flank became vulnerable to attack. To reduce the danger in that area, the U.S.
agreed to establish a force there and on October 2, 1955, the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force was activated.
SETAF’s
first headquarters was on Camp Darby, but the largest number of soldiers has always been in Vicenza, Italy. Shortly after activation,
USASETAF moved the headquarters to Verona, Italy, to . Troop strength reached 10,000 and USASETAF was formally established with a U.S.-Italian agreement.
In 1959, following President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s visit to Rome, a third agreement brought significant changes to USASETAF.
Italy’s military forces had been re-established. U.S. troop strength was cut in half; equipment from disbanded U.S. units was
turned over to Italy; and Italian Army personnel were assigned to the USASETAF general staff to assist with unique bi-national
responsibilities. As a result of this agreement, the 69th Engineers and an artillery company were moved to Caserma Passalacqua.
Both companies had nuclear weapons. The artillery company’s sergeant missiles had nuclear warheads and the engineering company
was an ADOM (Atomic Demolition Munitions) engineering unit.
The headquarters moved again in 1965 to Caserma Carlo Ederle
in Vicenza. Soldier strength dropped to 2,500 in 1970 and civilian
employment went down 70 percent in a unilateral cost-reduction effort. The port opened by 8th Area Support Group in Livorno was
returned to Italian control.
SETAF’s mission and geographical area of responsibility increased in 1972 when the command
enlarged its signal support unit and
took control of the 558th U.S. Army Artillery Group in Greece and the 528th USAAG in Turkey. These units had been in support of
NATO since the early 1960s, along with the 559th USAAG, which had been a USASETAF unit in Italy since 1964. The 509th Infantry
Regiment (Airborne Battalion Combat Team - ABCT) was previously assigned to the command of SETAF in 1973, and was redesignated
as the 325th Infantry Regiment (82nd Airborne Division) in the early 1980s. The 325th ABCT was composed of three line companies,
a headquarters company, a combat-support company, and a cohort 105mm artillery battery. A member of NATO's Allied Mobile Forces
(Land), the 325th ABCT was the right flank element of the European front during the late Cold War and was deployable by parachute
to anywhere in the region. The primary missions of SETAF during the 1980s were the defense of the eastern Alpine passes in
anticipation of a Soviet invasion, and command/control of the nuclear weapons stockpiles still located in Northern Italy.
The 1st Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment served in Vicenza (on Caserma Ederle) from April 1996 until it was reflagged as the 1st Battalion,
503rd Infantry Regiment in June of 2006.
Until 1992, USASETAF was considered a logistical command. In addition to the infantry units, SETAF operated a major depot at Camp Darby
in conjunction with the 8th Area Support Group. With its designation as a support command and later a theater army area command,
USASETAF was to be responsible for the reception, preparation for combat, and onward movement of forces entering the southern region for general war.
Political reorientation of Europe in 1989 and 1990 caused major revision of U.S. and NATO military priorities. With the drastic
reduction of threat of general war, SETAF received new missions for regional tactical operations as command and control headquarters
for Army and Joint units. Its three artillery groups were inactivated and the two support groups became support groups with unique
missions. The 8th Area Support Group’s depot operation developed into the maintenance and issue of theater reserve stocks organized
in unit sets sufficient to fully equip a heavy brigade.
The 3rd Battlion of the 325th Regiment also served during this period and were successful in the campaign of "Operation Provide
Comfort", during the first Gulf War in Iraq. They were commanded by Lt.Col. John P. Abazaid, who later became the Commander of
Cent. Com. of the current Gulf War to present day, as a General.(2007)
Dal Molin Planned Base Annex: The US military plans to extend the military footprint in Vicenza to include all elements of the 173rd ABCT. The new
base annex is planned to be located on the disused civilian Dal Molin airport, roughly two miles from Caserma Ederle. The plan was first
agreed by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's administration. The next prime minister, Romano Prodi, government initially opposed it,
but eventually agreed to the extension plan. The expansion to Dal Molin is led by engineer Kambiz Razzaghi. The plan provoked many problems
in Romano Prodi's coalition, although he concluded a new 12 point program with his allies. This was met by opposition from both the Italian
left-wing and the nationalist right-wing, with an estimated 100,000 people marching in several protests in Vicenza against the extension
plan on February 17, 2007. The Communist Refoundation Party (PRC), the Party of Italian Communists (PDCI), the Greens, and a part of the
Democrats of the Left (DS) and of the Margherita parties opposed the plan by organizing a two-day-long opposition protest. Vicenza is
eventually slated to be home to all six battalions of the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Currently, only two infantry battalions and portions
of the brigade's two support battalions are in Vicenza, and the move would bring the total number of stationed troops in Vicenza to 5,000.
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