This is a very important day for the police.
Every February 16 - the date on which, in 1791, the constabulary of the Ancien Régime became the national gendarmerie - the soldiers pay tribute to their companions who died while carrying out their duties.
This Friday, the ceremony took place at Les Invalides, in the presence of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin as well as the Director General of the National Gendarmerie (DGGN), Army General Christian Rodriguez.
This traditional commemoration of the dead was followed by a tribute to the living.
Nine gendarmes were awarded decorations highlighting their courage, their resolution and their heroism.
In the rest of France, around a hundred soldiers were also decorated at the same time.
Everyday heroes
Among those who were honored today, reserve chief brigadier Maryline, 42 years old.
At the time of the Annecy attacks, the reservist had gone to the Pâquier esplanade with children in her care.
Thanks to her fortitude, on June 8, 2023, the reservist saved the lives of two children aged 3 who had been stabbed in the chest by the assailant.
Maëlys, 19, was also decorated for her courage.
This volunteer assistant gendarme to the Autonomous Territorial Brigade (BTA) of Pont-de-Claix, in Isère, will receive the national defense gold medal with bronze star.
On December 6, thanks to her knowledge as a volunteer firefighter, the young soldier helped save the life of a thirteen-day-old baby who had stopped breathing.
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Major Samuel, who commands the gendarmerie surveillance and intervention platoon (PSIG) of Tarbes, 50 years old, was also awarded a medal for having, on May 7, 2023, with two of his comrades, allowed the control of a madman who was shooting in front of his home with a hunting rifle.
“
I set up a closure because he wanted to attack his partner, in a context of separation.
We waited for 4 hours, while he was negotiating.
We were told on the radio that he was going to go out unarmed, but ultimately he showed up with his weapon
,”
Major Samuel told Le
Figaro .
Despite orders from the police to put down his weapon, the man targeted one of the major's companions, Constable Dan, 31, who was shot in the leg.
“
We were quite traumatized towards our families.
Dan at the time was the father of a one and a half year old child, and his wife was pregnant
.”
Gendarmes Corentin and Quentin, from the autonomous territorial brigade (BTA) of Saint-Pierre d'Oléron, for their part received a medal for having, on January 15, helped prevent the murder of a spouse.
Both had been contacted by a pharmacist on the island who had recognized, not far from her establishment, the former companion of one of her employees.
This man, who had already presented himself a few days earlier, was nevertheless prohibited from coming into contact with the victim, who had filed a complaint against him for acts of death threats and harassment of a spouse in November 2023, in Brest .
The two gendarmes managed to arrest the individual and discovered, in the suspect's vehicle, a handgun loaded with a 6-round magazine.
While in police custody, the man in question immediately declared that he “
had planned to go to the pharmacy with the sole aim of killing his ex-partner before committing suicide with the weapon.” discovery
.”
Also decorated were Warrant Officer Fabien and Head Marshal François, of the high mountain gendarmerie platoon (PGHM) Oloron Sainte-Marie.
These two mountain rescuers intervened on February 4, 2023 not far from the summit of the small peak of Midi d'Ossau, at an altitude of 2,700 meters, to rescue 2 Spanish mountaineers in difficulty.
“
One of them fell 10 meters and injured his ankle.
There was a lot of wind and they were no longer able to progress or come down,
” reports the head of the house, François, to Le
Figaro
.
The weather conditions made hoisting impossible by helicopter; the two rescuers joined the victims on foot around 1 a.m.
In total, the two soldiers had to climb for three hours.
When the two Spaniards were finally found, they were “
huddled on themselves
”, “
glued to each other
”, on “
a mixed rocky ridge, with rock and snow, in the open wind , without any equipment for bivouac, and in a state of hypothermia
.
The food and necessary equipment having been brought to them so that they could warm up, the rescuers François and Fabien enabled the survival of the climbers, until the helicopter hoisting was carried out the next day.
14 gendarmes died this year
This year, 14 gendarmes died during their missions, according to data from the national gendarmerie transmitted to Le
Figaro
.
Around 3,000 gendarmes were also injured in 2023 following an attack, including 880 during an attack with a weapon.
An increasing figure: it is 20% more than the previous year.
Between 2012 and 2022, attacks perpetrated against gendarmes increased by 88%, attacks with weapons by 183% and the volume of gendarmes injured by 44%, according to the IGGN 2022 report. At the same time, During this decade, the number of uses of weapons by the military fell by 2.2%.