Lieutenant Junior Grade - Ministry of Defence
Updated: Oct 15, 2021
In this chapter of my #WorkExperience, I explain my job position at the Italian Ministry of Defence from 2013 to 2017.
Table of contents
Achievements
✔ Digitalized two enrollment cores with the typical tools of a light company;
✔ Won my first award for a public sector project: Tie Your Tie;
✔ Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade after my first publication: Role and evolution of humanitarian aids in the Italian Development Cooperation.
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
I worked in the Military Corps of the Red Cross from May 2013 to January 2017 and belonged to the North-East Deployment Core of Verona.
In particular, I served in the Enlistments Core and Promotional Activities IRC of Padua and Venice with the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade.
Military Corps of the Red Cross
The Military Corps of the Red Cross is a special auxiliary volunteer military corp of the Italian army founded in 1866.
COMMISSIONER LIEUTENANT JUNIOR GRADE I.R.C. ALBERTO CARNIEL
I was a versatile soldier who could be used for several purposes according to the specific circumstances: Combat Life Saver, Project Manager and Communications Manager.
Photo Gallery
COMBAT LIFE SAVER
I spent my first two years in the Corps as a private with the operational role of Combat Life Saver. I served at the 7th Health Core of Verona in a tactical ambulance unit, obtaining many internal licenses.
European First Aid Certificate
This qualification is achieved after a two week course, where certified trainers teach you how to act in main health-emergency cases. During the course, apprentices learn basic first aid operations, according to the health guidelines of the European Union.
Basic Life Support Defibrillator
To achieve this qualification, you need to attend a two day course where certified medics teach you how to use the automatic and semi-automatic defibrillator. At the end of the course, there is a final practical test. Once you get the certification, you are qualified and authorized to use defibrillators in case of emergency. You have to renew your certification every two years.
First Aid and Patient Transportation
This course is sponsored and directed by the Italian Red Cross and gives apprentices all the necessary skills to be a professional ambulance technician. It lasts six months and is divided into three parts: a theoretical class, practical training and traineeship. The course is very demanding with ongoing examinations. Apprentices are only allowed to start the traineeship after having passed a midterm theoretical and practical test. You become a professional ambulance technician after the final exam, where a Red Cross commissioner evaluates your performance.
The teaching approach is very operational and you have practical training during each lesson. The human body is examined in depth: from the nervous system, skeletal system and internal apparatuses, to the organism's processes.
Many illnesses, dysfunctions and poisoning cases are analyzed together with their specific first aid treatments. Similarly, they also teach you how to treat fractures and burns, and how to correctly use many first aid devices like: bag valve masks, Kendrick Extrication Devices (K.E.D.), neck braces, gurneys, electrocardiography devices and so on.
The program trains you on Basic Life Support maneuvers (B.L.S) applied to adults and children (in this case, it is called Pediatric Basic Life Support, P.B.L.S.).
The traineeship consists of a minimum of 60 hours ambulance service with a tutor who is assigned to each apprentice to supervise and teach the operational aid maneuvers.
Non-medical qualifications
Supply goods and services below the E.U. threshold;
Driving licences: n°108386 - Type: 1; 3; 4.
SOME PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
Army first aid trainer
The First Aid and Patient Transportation qualification (the Italian abbreviation is P.S.T.I.) gave me the opportunity to teach first aid fundamentals to the Italian army.
In particular, I collaborated with Chinotto barracks in Vicenza (Italy) and trained Carabinieri and the international militaries who came yearly to Vicenza to study at CoESPU (Centre of Excellence for Stability Police Units).
Red Cross actor
Being an actor is not easy like someone could imagine. You must know medical maneuvers to have the best performance on the set.
Furthermore, if you simulate a rescue scene set in a war environment, you must also know International Humanitarian Law. You need to apply this knowledge both during the planning and acting phase.
The First Aid and Patient Transportation qualification gave me the consciousness to act in a realistic way. So, I had the pleasure to work with the Italian Red Cross and Military Corps of the Red Cross.
Rescue on snow-covered lands
The course is divided in 4 parts and each one has theoretical and practical lessons.
One part is focused on ski rescue, so that apprentices learn how to use several specific devices like the Akia. They also learn how to do first aid maneuvers in a snow-covered land.
The funniest part is focused on the professional use of a snowmobile. It is a rescue device which can also be very dangerous if it is not operated responsibly.
It is a 3 week course called Education and training for rescue on snow-covered lands. Medics, ski teachers and alpine guides are the trainers of this course. At the end of it, the apprentice will know how to rescue people with skis, snowmobiles and snow rackets.
Cimon barracks
The course is organized by the Military Corps of the Red Cross at the memorable Cimon barracks in Passo Rolle (Italy). It is a training base for the alpine rescue troops of Guardia di Finanza and is located very close to ski runs.
Another important part of the training is orienteering, where professional alpine guides teach you how to orient in the most difficult situations: for example, during an ice storm.
Finally, the last part is the rescue training with snow rackets. It is very useful to know how to walk with snow rackets, because a rescuer cannot reach every place using ski or snowmobiles.
PROJECT MANAGER
As to my administrative role, I was a Project Manager at the Enlistments Core and Promotional Activities I.R.C. of Padua until June 2015.
Tie Your Tie - 2014
Tie Your Tie is an anti-alcohol project conceived from the idea that a person in state of alcohol intoxication is not able to tie his/her tie.
Tie Your Tie is a catchy play on words invented to intrigue those who have prejudices and are reluctant to be approached by the usual promotional anti-alcohol campaigns. This name raises the curiosity of people who will be stimulated to research new information and discover the real aim of the project.
We approach people who are exiting from pubs and night clubs, and invite them to tie a tie correctly. For the Red Cross team, it represents a new and innovative way to approach young people.
Besides, it creates a funny situation where we can use peer-education to teach people the legal and biological problems related to the abuse of alcohol. A tie is used like a “Trojan horse” to educate, but also to entertain drunk people as much as possible, before they start to drive.
Tie Your Tie is not only a simple play on words, but also an alternative educational strategy supported by the work of trained volunteers armed with technical tools such as alcohol-vision glasses, breathalyzers and questionnaires.
Tie Your Tie also reaches students in the Italian schools with lessons and interesting debates and uses different teaching methods, according to their age.
Tie Your Tie project is led by young volunteers of the Italian Red Cross. It means medics and specialized I.R.C. operators who are at a maximum 32 years old.
This is an essential rule to guarantee the effectiveness of peer-education. Young I.R.C. volunteers belong indiscriminately to each department of the Red Cross, including the Military Corps of the Red Cross and Volunteer Nurses.
Tie Your Tie participated in a regional anti-alcohol project competition and won a tender of €1600, overcoming 30 other institutional projects.
The project is driven forward by the Italian Red Cross provincial committee of Padua (Italy).
My role in the Tie Your Tie project
From a general idea, suggested by Alessandra Bonadies (the manager of Padua Red Cross young people department), I created and executed every part and detail of the project. I invented the name and the approaching strategy to the population.
After the initial creative phase, a team of medics and technicians supported me to define the overall Tie Your Tie structure with their technical knowledge.
I wrote the project and its guidelines, and got the authorization to proceed from my command. Then, I managed the advertising campaigns and team.
Gorilla project - 2015
The Gorilla project arises from the need to fight obesity at any age and is aimed at all volunteers, volunteer nurses and inactive militaries of the Italian Red Cross.
An appropriate nutrition and healthy lifestyle are considered fundamental human rights by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Nutrition and physical activity affect the development, performance and productivity of people. They also positively influence the overall life quality and psychophysical conditions that occur during aging. A correct diet prevents many diseases and represents a treatment for many others.
The Italian Red Cross wants to support these principles and promotes, with the IDEA campaign (trans. Hygiene Diet and Food Education), a correct diet and healthy lifestyle since October 2010.
The efforts of the Red Cross have taken care of the general population so far, but the Gorilla project inverts this orientation: the volunteers themselves become the target of the aid and are guided on the path to fight obesity.
Red Cross for Red Cross: an activity in line with the 2020 Strategy which puts into practice the memorable slogan: «persone in prima persona» (literally from Italian: "persons in first person").
Today, for each malnourished person, there are two people who are overweight. Every year, 36 million people die for lack of food, while 29 million people perish from illnesses related to excessive consumption. Everyday, 805 million people suffer from starvation, while 1,5 billion people are overweight.
Gorilla is the most innovative project of 2015 which puts volunteers at the first line to promote and develop the strategic policy of the Red Cross to combat obesity.
The idea behind the project can be defined by three key points: motivation, dedication and results.
With our will, we are able to reach any objective and our determination can make us insatiable. The higher our motivation is, the more we persevere to achieve a result.
Gorilla is a path which involves dedication and is set up like a real anti-obesity toolbox.
In fact, the final target is to offer participants all the necessary best practices to pursue wellness autonomously: a philosophy of life, mainly focused on a person's well-being. It can be reached by doing sports combined with a healthy diet.
The results of the project are measured by anonymous questionnaires submitted to participants, in order to discover their nutrition and lifestyle habits. Participants fill them out before beginning the activity and again three months after the project ends.
The aim is to verify the effectiveness of the project: Gorilla only works if participants have changed their nutrition and lifestyle habits.
Gorilla provides the following activities for free:
Two theoretical lessons led by a dietitian: the Dr. Irene Iob, M.D., introduces the principles of healthy nutrition from the so called nutrition pyramid to the new medical nutrition trends. The second lesson is focused on damage caused by obesity on a biological level;
Motivational coaching workshop: Gorilla project is supervised by a life coach, Dr. Paola Tambuscio, PhD. She also leads a training class on the following key points: the concept of failure and success, the constraining and strengthening of convictions, and explores self identity and values. The aim is to motivate participants through a creative and stimulating workshop, and activate a psychological development process that enhances self-potential and overcomes self-doubt. In this way, it is possible to help a volunteer to overpass the gap that divides him/her to wellness;
An individual nutrition session: a nutritionist, Dr. Claudia Gabrielli, PhD., dedicates to each participant a tailor made nutrition session giving him/her suggestions about the best way to pursue healthy nutrition;
Team of fitness trainers: a newly created weekly sport program at the North Military Sport Center of Padua, thanks to the partnership with fitness center and spa, MyClub (in Casalserugo, Italy), for 4 Sunday mornings, specific aerobic physical activity is offered to help participants lose weight. This sport program is led by two personal trainers: Alessandro Pizzigolotto and Federica Martelli. Each lesson has a maximum duration of one hour and a half. These meetings give the opportunity to practice team-building and check the group's progress achieved during the project.
Irene Iob: a dietitian specialized in nutrition science who has collaborated for some years with the diabetes hospital department of Padua, conducting research on the benefits linked to diet and sport activities in diabetic overweight patients.
Claudia Gabrielli: a nutritionist specialized in therapy and prevention of malnutrition and obesity ailments.
Paola Tambuscio: she is internationally certified as a life and business coach, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) trainer and is an associate of Skill Academy. She graduated in statesmanship and specialized in European politics and international cooperation. Today, Paola works as an expert for the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy in the General Management of the third sector.
MyClub: a fitness and spa center which offers two personal trainers for the Sunday sport activities: Alessandro Pizzigolotto, graduated in Physical Education and Sport Sciences, and Federica Martelli, graduated in Physical Education and Sport Sciences with a specialization in science and techniques of the preventive and adapted physical activities.
North Military Sport Center: it offers its spaces to the Italian Red Cross thanks to a partnership between its supervisor, colonel Carmelo Tundo, and the Communications Manager of the Enrollments Core of Padua, Lieutenant Junior Grade Alberto Carniel.
My role in the Gorilla project
I realized the project in all its parts. After the initial creative phase, I found the partners and managed their relations.
At the beginning, I drafted the project and got the authorization from my command. Then, I established the partnerships and managed the project until its end.
Do No Harm - 2015
The international community sets quality standards for the development cooperation programs. Among the most important criterions which guide humanitarian interventions, there is the so called conflict sensitivity. It represents a guideline for all development cooperation players to act “without harm” or “without damage”, in other words: do no harm.
The importance of introducing a method based on the do no harm in cooperation programs, is essential. It allows the removal of harmful will to produce any type of damage.
Humanitarian aid itself is not always the best solution to encourage development, in fact it can produce many collateral effects. The aim of do no harm is to prevent the negative effects related to the humanitarian work, in particular, the distortive effects of conflict economy.
These effects are represented by the risk of creating analogous governmental systems inside contexts where the central authority is weak and the risk of micro-infightings, linked to the aids distribution, is high.
Red Cross is one of the major international cooperation players and must continuously update its guidelines. So, a need has arisen to create a specific debate to deepen the most modern trends of development cooperation.
The Do No Harm project was a small conference where I compared Neoclassic aid aspects with the modern development cooperation trends.
Particularly, I focused on the thoughts of global economists like Dambisa Moyo, William Easterly and Hernando De Soto.
The event was sponsored by Altro Mercato which offered the audience a complementary coffee break.
My role in the Do No Harm project
I created the project in all its parts. After the initial creative phase, I found and managed the partners.
At the beginning, I wrote the project and got the authorization from my command. Then, I established relationships with the partners and managed the project until its end.
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Afterwards, I served as a Communications Manager of the Enlistments Core and Promotional Activities I.R.C. of Padua and Venice. I managed the internal and external Command's relations, both in national and international territory. I also managed the Social Media, newsletters, advertising campaigns and was responsible for the promotional events.
