More than 40 years in the Legion: “I saw the regiment grow and it saw me grow”, Major Chemin is the memory of the 1st Reg

“I’m a bit like Father Fouras from 1^is Reg! I saw the regiment grow, and they saw me grow. I’m one of the only ones still here who knew him from the very beginning.” launches with his usual frankness, Major Chemin, Franck-Jackie by his first name. At 61 years old, the legionnaire, “I retracted her”spent nearly 40 years in active service with the Legion.

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After this long career, he did not leave the institution. For three years, the major has been “defense civilian, traditional substitute officer and responsible for heritage and archives“. It is he who watches over the Hall of Honor on 1^is Reg (foreign engineering regiment) in Laudun-L’Ardoise, where the young people assigned to them, the Defense classes, the officers and non-commissioned officers, the elected officials are welcomed… to whom the major tells the history of the Legion. And willingly his own.

Entering the army at 18, this blue-eyed Norman chose the latest of the Legion’s regiments, the 6^e Reg, in Laudun-L’Ardoise (which will become the 1^is Reg 1^isJuly 1999, after the creation of a second engineering regiment in the Legion, editor’s note), which then had three companies, for eight today on the 1^is Reg.

Very quickly, the young legionnaire rose to rank – corporal at the age of 19 – and joined the non-commissioned officer corps in 1988, “there was a need for executives”, he explains modestly. He goes through 3^e REI (foreign infantry regiment), then finds the 6^e Reg, and continues the missions: Central African Republic, Guyana, Chad, Cambodia, Kosovo, Djibouti, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan…“I was trained to be a bomb disposal engineer, I liked it.”

His hand is torn off by the explosion of an artillery shell

He joined the deminers in 2000, at 1^is Reg and 2^e Reg, in Saint-Christol d’Albion. Until the accident, ten years later. “I had to collect ammunition on the road in Kapisa, a province of Afghanistan.” A Chinese artillery shell explodes and tears off his hand, a splinter passes through his thigh, “my teammate made me a tourniquet“. Evacuated to the American hospital, he was repatriated to the Percy army hospital where he remained for a year and a half. A hand was amputated, and the non-commissioned officer later also had his leg, following complications.

Ses “first steps among the wounded“, Major Chemin did them in Cambodia, in 1992. Then a sergeant, he led mine clearance operations. It was during one of his missions that with one of his comrades, he saved the lives of two soldiers. “They were in a minefield, it exploded. We had to go and get them. The helicopter couldn’t land.” Without hesitation, the two men, armed with their courage, made their way to the wounded, “one had lost a leg”to evacuate them. Three quarters of an hour to brave the danger.

A month later, he was burned in the lung, and “blasted in the ears” during another explosion. Evacuated to Phnom Penh, the legionnaire refused repatriation and returned to work. However, he has good memories of this period. Not like this war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (former Yugoslavia), in 1993, where he was sent with his company under UN mandate. “We couldn’t have heavy weapons. We were being fired upon and we had no orders to respond.” This is also where a tragedy will mark him for life. “We gave chocolates to children. There was artillery fire, children were killed”. From then on, “in all my missions, I forbade contact with the population“, so as not to put her in danger.

“We really have to thank the doctors and nurses. We, the war wounded, are getting through it, we are rebuilding thanks to them.” So much so that Major Chemin continued his career, in the administrative branch of the Legion, with a stay in Polynesia.

“For someone who didn’t want to be a soldier, that’s not too bad!” laughs, with the humility we know for him, the guardian of the memory of the regiment. “The Legion is my life. I’m still around comrades who were with me when I was 18.”

One regret, however, is that of not having seen his children grow up. “Between two missions, when she was little, my daughter didn’t recognize me” he remembers.“I could have left after the missions. But I was changing all the time, that’s what made me stay.”

His long-term career was recognized in 2021 by General Burkhard (former chief of staff of the armed forces, editor’s note), who made him an officer of the Legion of Honor, a rare distinction for a non-commissioned officer. Another recognition, “I was a flag guard for July 14 in Paris.” Là encore, “an honor.”