Acknowledgement Day for UTN Malvinas war veterans

In a very emotive ceremony, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional acknowledged those members of the technological community who fought in the Malvinas War, in 1982.

Esteban Tries was in charge of the event. “They gave me the honor to conduct this event to give statuettes to a group of people who 35 years ago set out to defend our nation, returned with a defeat and are today acknowledged by an Institution that supported them. UTN opened its doors for them to return and many could achieve the dream of their adolescence, which had been broken at that time,” he added.

UTN Delta’s Dean, Eng. Miguel Sosa; UTN Buenos Aires’ Vice Dean, Eng. Andrés Bursztyn; and UTN Avellaneda’s  Vice Dean, Enrique Filgueira were present. Eng. José Luis García, UTN General Pacheco’s Dean, sent a letter of agreement. The President of the Graduates Center, Eng. Rubén Begnes, attended on behalf of this Facultad Regional.

Bursztyn welcomed the attendees and said: “It is a great pleasure to have this opportunity to honor war veterans in life who in addition are proudly UTN engineers, as we often say. A UTN engineer identifies with the other. We form a community which we like to call family, which not only gives us a chance like this to honor them. It is that friendly hand and hug expressing a great gratefulness for what they have done as war veterans and for the effort made to graduate as engineers. We hope that this is a good reason for those who are away from home to return to the School to participate in cultural and academic activities so that they can share their experience.”

Then, Lic. Alejandro Scomparin, Eng. Alejandro Chams and Eng. José Luis Polti presented the “Joining Malvinas Challenge” Project, which was developed in December 2016. Scomparin, who joined significant sites of the Islands by running 250 km in a week, explained that the purpose of the project was “to send a peace message to both countries, joining both the Argentine and the British cemeteries, and honoring the fallen soldiers.”

In turn, Polti stressed the “hostile weather in Malvinas and Alejandro’s effort. It was a unique trip, very exciting and sometimes difficult too because we had to show our passport to visit an Argentine territory. And even without any national symbols, each of us took something that represented our country. I never sang the national anthem in the same way after singing it in the cemetery looking at the graves of people who died defending us. The highest respect to ex combatants,” he summed up.

Chams added that “this was an honoring journey for our fellows, here and there, but it was also a journey full of emotions. I wanted to go to Malvinas, I needed it. Those who stayed here also suffered for those former combatants there; we tried to do something, we didn’t know what to do. It was a pending debt”.

Then, a new video from the Feed! Band which composes songs on the topic was shown to honor the veterans.

Then, plaques were given “as an acknowledgement for their commitment in the defense of the Nation during the Malvinas war, for fully representing the values of the technological community.”

The honored

During the event, acknowledgment plaques were given to the following Malvinas heroes, to whom UTNBA expressed its pride:

ALBANESE, Alejandro Miguel

ALSINA, Victor Raul

ARROYO ARZUBI, Alejandro Luis

ASTA, Gustavo Alejandro

BARBERIO, Edgardo

BUSTOS, Rubén Héctor

D’Angelo, Alberto

FLEITE, Roberto Daniel

FUNES, ROBERTO GUSTAVO

Gómez Pedro

JUSTO, Rafael Mariano

KALIK, Fernando Ariel

KOSFELDER, Enrique

LIGUORI, Antonio Javier

ORBEGOZO, Carlos Marcelo

PAZ, Alejandro Francisco

PODESTA, Jorge Eduardo

QUIROS, Alejandro Fabián
RODRIGUEZ, Julio
SANCHEZ, Fabían Pedro
SANTILLAN, Juan Francisco
SILVA, César Omar
SILVA, Néstor Darío