"To fully understand Salvo D'Acquisto, we must retrace the path of his upbringing, first his childhood in the reassuring circle of his family, then his professional life: a wealth of moral notions, religious precepts and edifying examples is the solid foundation on which his character was built. It is in his genuine popular faith and pride in belonging to the Carabinieri that we must seek the stimulus, the spiritual detonator of his sublime gesture, which synthesises two forms of heroism that are only apparently distant but both attributable to the voluntary offering of life: the secular heroism of the soldier and the heroism of the Christian martyr. Yet, how natural was that supreme decision, dictated by a force that was not at all mysterious, reminding him of the simplest and most arduous of a soldier's duties: a sense of responsibility towards himself. Aware that he and no one else was the representative of the state, he and no one else the guarantor of a public service whose purpose was order and justice, he did not shirk these duties and paid the price personally. More than anyone else, therefore, Salvo D'Acquisto became the perfect symbol of the spirit of sacrifice and dedication of the Carabinieri, a symbol that in the collective imagination of our people identifies the legendary history of the Benemerita."