Corporal Pavel of the 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG), one of the two engineer regiments of the French Foreign Legion, is currently deployed to Iraq, as part of Operation Chammal, a French military operation in Iraq and Syria. He serves as a skilful electrical mechanic.
Legionnaire Pavel was born in Moldavia in Eastern Europe. In 2015, he joined the Foreign Legion, passed the initial selection and the following four-month basic training to become Legionnaire. Then he was assigned to the 1er REG as a electrical mechanic. In 2018, he served in the Central African Republic and in late 2019, he was part of a small detachment within Task Force Narvik to deploy to Iraq to support French troops there, including legionnaires from other regiments.
As he notes, his work and his skills makes him a very autonomous unit within the French military base. He helps to keep the Task Force camp’s electrical equipment (e.g. generators or communication systems) secure and in working condition. Corporal Pavel is responsible for troubleshooting and routine maintenance, as well as all needed interventions to repair it. He sometimes act as a welder too. He has the role of direct advisor in his specialty to the Task Force command.
As he says, the mission allows him to improve his self-confidence through the responsibility he has to demonstrate. There is also a lot of electrical equipment to maintain at the camp that he is constantly in demand.
He is satisfied with his life in the Foreign Legion and is planning to prolong his first five-year contract coming to end in 2020. As he states, each mission allows him to grow more and to become an even more competent soldier. And as a skillful specialist, he will deploy a lot.
Original source: Le caporal Pavel, un « énergiste » polyvalent
Image credits: Ministère de la Défense
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