A day in the life of the 9° Stormo of Grazzanise

A few months ago, my father-in-law gave me a nice book titled “A day in the life of Australia”. In a few words, on March 6 1981 at 00:01 hours, 100 of the World leading photojournalists (among them also some Pulitzer Prize winners) gathered in Australia, poised in different locations and for the next 24 hours took photographs of Red Continent. This book contains 367 pictures taken across Australia that draw a portrait of the country in a single day of 1981.
The book reminded me of the days I spent in Grazzanise (especially in 2003) when I not only took pictures of the local based F-104s, but captured moments with images of people, equipment, landscape, etc. So I decided to prepare a photostory of a day spent with the 9° Stormo in Grazzanise in 2003. I did not select only the most significant or interesting pictures: in order to let everyone see the images I shot I uploaded all of them, even in some cases they look similar one another. This article will provide a snapshot about the 9° Stormo and Grazzanise airbase in a day (actually the pictures were taken in 2 days, Aug. 12 and Sept 8 during a Sqn Exch with the Hellenic Air Force F-4 Phantoms) of 2003.












































































About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.