June 10, 1967 marks a watershed date for the History of Italian Paratroopers. On that day, the Paratrooper Brigade was authorized to bear the name "Folgore". A direct tribute to the Folgore Paratrooper Division, which had written one of the most glorious pages of our military history in the sands of El Alamein in 1942.
But tradition does not stop at names. The identity of a unit also passes through the visual symbols that represent it, and during that period two fundamental elements were introduced, which every Italian paratrooper still wears with extreme pride today:
- The maroon beret
- The metal insignia with the parachute and the dagger
The Maroon Beret: the headgear of those who attack from the sky
The adoption of the Maroon Beret – which took place on July 1, 1967, in San Rossore, in the province of Pisa, at the end of the airdrop exercise "Aquila Rossa" – was not a random choice. In line with a consolidated international tradition, which wants elite troops to be immediately recognizable by the color of their headgear, Italy also chose a distinctive color for its Paratroopers
The maroon beret, already a symbol of British airborne troops and other special units worldwide, became the recognition mark of Italian Paratroopers. Not just a simple uniform element, but a symbol of valor, of selection, of hard training, and of belonging to a brotherhood that extends beyond time and generations.
The insignia: designed by those who wore the beret
In that context of change, a young Paratrooper serving at the Command Company of the “Gamerra” Barracks in Pisa, Giulio Renzo Sarrica, was tasked with designing the new insignia intended for the Maroon Beret.
The choice did not fall on just any designer, but on a military member of the unit, a Paratrooper, an “insider”, who knew from within the spirit and meaning of what was to be represented. The result was a technical, precise, and symbolically powerful work, based on a geometric structure built from the circle, as a testament to the discipline, harmony, and centrality of the paratrooper in the structure of the Armed Forces.
The insignia, designed for metal die-casting, shows an open parachute with perfectly symmetrical canopies, at the center of which stands a vertical dagger – a symbol of readiness, determination, and offensive strength. A design that, in a few strokes, manages to condense the essence of the Paratrooper: an assault man, but also a precise, determined soldier ready to operate in complex conditions.
The project, created in 1967 by Sarrica, is fully part of the iconographic history of the Folgore.
The “unit flea”: a heartfelt and respected variant
In the following years, a variant appeared: the insignia with the addition of the "flea", that is, the specific symbol of the unit of belonging (for example 183°, 186°, 187° for the Regiments, and 2º, 5º, etc. for the Battalions) inserted within the original design.
This version is worn with equal pride, as it allows Paratroopers to make their history and journey within the Folgore visible.
It's not just metal: it's belonging
The maroon beret and the insignia are not accessories. They are honor, sacrifice, brotherhood, daring. They represent hours and days of training, jumps, and challenges overcome.
Wearing them does not just mean belonging to an elite corps: it means carrying on the head and in the heart the history of those who preceded us, of those who sacrificed themselves even to the ultimate sacrifice for Italy and with the Folgore in their heart, and at the same time assuming the moral responsibility to honor that past every day.
The insignia designed by Paratrooper Giulio Sarrica in 1967 is an extraordinary example of military art and Folgore tradition: a work capable of encapsulating, in a metallic symbol, the very soul of the Folgore.
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