Gregorio De Falco, the Italian Coast Guard commander called a "hero" for ordering the captain of the sinking Costa Concordia to return to his ship to help his 3,000 passengers, said he is being forcibly transferred to an administrative desk.
De Falco, who ordered Francesco Schettino to return to the cruise ship he crashed on rocks resulting in 32 deaths and plunging thousands into the seas off Tuscany, said that at the end of September, he will be transferred to a desk job after 10 years on the operational side of the Livorno port authority.
"What happened to me saddens me as the last piece of a journey that began long ago," De Falco told ANSA, adding his experience will be wasted in administrative work.
"I'm pretty disappointed," he added.
"I do not understand why they would remove an officer with my experience from operational roles and send to another assignment," he said.
De Falco is famous for ordering Schettino to "get back on board, dammit" during the rescue operations during the January 2012 disaster.
Federico Gelli, parliamentarian with the Democratic Party (PD), asked Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi to explain the transfer that comes after De Falco served for 10 years managing the Livorno maritime port and region.
He praised De Falco's work in helping to rescue passengers during the sinking of the cruise ship and said the move may be linked the ongoing trial of Schettino that has led to De Falco's transfer.
Senator Maurizio Gasparri of the Forza Italia (FI) party said De Falco was a "star" on the night of the disaster and that he also wants an explanation.
De Falco said he appreciated politicians trying to get to the bottom of his transfer. The Concordia disaster occurred when an allegedly rash maneuver by Schettino resulted in the Concordia hitting a rock reef as the ship sailed close to Giglio Island to 'salute' local people.
Schettino, who continues to maintain the crash and subsequent deaths were not his fault, is on trial charged with multiple counts of manslaughter in the shipwreck that killed 32 people as well as plunging thousands into the seas off the Tuscany.
During the trial, De Falco described how he "urged Captain Schettino to get back on the ship but I did not succeed," adding that he thought Schettino did not grasp how serious the situation was.
But calls to police from passengers told De Falco another, more grim story, he testified in court in December 2013.
"I called the ship because the situation seemed more worrisome than what they had claimed," De Falco told the court. "It was only after this that they admitted there was a leak and not only a blackout. We then sent out boats and helicopters".
He told the court that on the evening of January 13, 2012, "while the ship reassured us that all was well on board, the Prato carabinieri police told us that a relative of a passenger had called to say that there were no lights on board, that passengers had been told to put on their life jackets and that things were falling over.
"This was inconsistent with what the ship had declared," he added.
"This made us think that the situation was more serious, (but) no one from the Concordia called us to ask for help".
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