On Tuesday, January 26, 2016, the Foreign Legion’s 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) held a ceremony to pay tribute to the six legionnaires killed in an avalanche in the French Alps. The ceremony took place at Quartier Maréchal Koenig, 2e REG’s headquarters in Saint-Christol, in southeastern France.
The legionnaires were caught in the avalanche on January 18, 2016, while crossing the Petit Argentier saddle during basic mountain warfare training. Five died at the scene. A sixth legionnaire died one week later in hospital. All were assigned to the 3rd Company 2e REG.
The French Army identified the killed legionnaires as:
- Corporal Touré LAMARANA (33), from Madagascar, who received French citizenship after five years of service; joined the Legion in April 2008
- 1st Class Legionnaire Samuel SIMI (26), from Italy; joined in July 2013
- Legionnaire Lal Bahadur KHAPANGI (24), from Nepal; joined in August 2014
- Legionnaire Gheorghe PALADE (21), from Moldova; joined in January 2015
- Legionnaire Denis HALILI (21), from Albania; joined in July 2015
- 1st Class Legionnaire David HETENYI (23), from Hungary; joined in December 2014 (the sixth fatality)
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Photo source: Hommage aux légionnaires du 2e REG
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Related posts:
2e REG – pay homage ceremony to the dead Senior Corporal
2e REG: Life in the mountains 2014
1er REG: Paying Homage to Major Nikolic
Harold Vormezeele – a military funeral video