Paolo Magro

Lt. General Magro was born in Udine on the 29th December 1952.  He achieved the Technical High School Diploma in Aeronautic Construction.  He joined the Italian Air Force Academy in 1971 (Class Marte III) and was commissioned Second Lieutenant in 1973.  In 1976 he received his Military wings on G91 aircraft at Amendola Flying School.  The same year he was assigned to the 10th Fighter Squadron, 9th Wing – Grazzanise. Lt. General Magro completed several tours flying mainly on Lockheed F104 S, firstly as Squadron pilot, then as Weapon Instructor and Flight Commander, Wing Flight Safety Officer, Squadron Commander and Wing Operations Chief. He graduated from Staff College in 1989 and subsequently served with Italian Air Force Staff as Air Defence Section Chief in the Operation Office.  He was appointed Station Commander for Amendola in 1994 and lead the conversion of the Unit from  being a Flying School  based on the G91 to an operational Unit on AMX (32ND Wing). At the end of 1995 he returned to the Air Staff as Chief of Training Office and subsequently  also responsible for the Operations Office. He assumed the appointment of Air Attache’ to the UK and Republic of Ireland in July 1998 and was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in  January 2000. In July 2001, back to Italy, he was appointed Deputy Commander for the Fighter Division and in July 2002  he was appointed  Deputy Chief for the Military Policy and Planning  Division in the Italian Defence General Staff. On January 2004 he was appointed Deputy Chief of the Plans and Operations Department of Italian Air Staff. In  January 2006 was appointend Chief of the 3rd Department of the Italian Air Staff and in march 2007 was promoted to the rank of Major General. The 24 of march 2011 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General. Since October 2009 he is Chief of 3rd Department “Military Policy and Planning” of the Italian Defence General Staff. He has flown a total of 2500 hours.