2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment The 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment ( ) is an airborne regiment of the French Foreign Legion , stationed at Camp Raffalli near the town of Calvi on the island of Corsica , just south of mainland France . It is part of the 11th Parachute Brigade and the spearhead of the French Rapid reaction force . History . As a consequence of the successes of the Parachute Company of 3e REI ( ) , the Legions ' first parachute unit , serving in the First Indochina War it was decided to raise two battalions of Legion paratroops . The 2nd Foreign Parachute Battalion ( ) was formed on October 1 , 1948 , and based at Setif , Algeria . Indochina . The 2e BEP was sent to Indochina on January 13 , 1949 and arrived at Saigon on February 8 . From then until November they served as ' sector troops ' . In 1950 , the battalion became a part of the General Reserve in Indochina . Following the French defeat on " Route coloniale 4 " in October 1950 , the battalion was transported by ship to North Vietnam . The battalion took part in several battles , including the first battle of Nghia Lo ( October 1951 ) , the Black River ( November – December 1951 ) , and the fight for " Route coloniale 6 " ( January – February 1952 ) during the Battle of Hoa Binh . The battalion made a parachute drop on Dien Bien Phu as reinforcement during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu ( March – May 1954 ) . Fighting without reinforcements , remnants of the 1er and 2e BEP were overwhelmed after a final assault by Viet Minh forces ; fewer than 100 legionnaires of the 2e BEP were taken prisoner . On 1 December 1954 , after the surviving members of the battalion had returned from captivity after the Armistice , the 2e BEP was later reconstituted with replacements , and returned by ship to French Algeria . Algeria . On December 1 , 1955 , the 2e BEP was enlarged to a full regiment , and was redesignated as the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment ( ) . The regiment served throughout the war and suffered a total of 741 casualties . After the armistice on March 19 , 1962 the regiment was to moved to Telergma and in September to Mers - el - Kebir . In June 1963 Lt . Col . Caillaud took command with a plan to transformed the now demoralized regiment into an elite para - commnado force . In June 1967 the regiment was moved to its current base at Camp Raffalli , Calvi on the island of Corsica . It was assigned to the 11th Division and became part of France ' s rapid intervention forces . Chad . Elements of the regiment were deployed to Chad in April 1969 as part of a French force to support the government against two rebel forces . Returning at the end of 1970 . Individual companies were deployed again in 1978 - 79 to protect French lives and again in 1984 . Zaire . In May 1978 , a force of " gendarmes katangais " entered the Katanga province of Zaire from Angola and occupied the mining town of Kolwezi . They began to loot the town and kill government soldiers and civilians ( including several Belgian and French employees of a mining company ) . At the request of the government of Zaire , 2 REP was airlifted to Kinshasa and dropped on Kolwezi . The operation was a success and the town was quickly recaptured with minor casualties in the ranks of the paratroopers . Some 120 civilian hostages died in the occupation . Afghanistan . 2e REP deployed to Afghanistan from January to July 2010 , as part of Task Force " Altor " . Two Legionnaires , Pole Konrad Rygiel from 2e REP GCP , Slovakian Robert Hutnik from the regiment were killed in action . Selection . Selection for 2e REP takes 4 weeks . The first 2 weeks are physical tests across terrain . Parachute training takes place at Camp Raffalli and runs for 2 weeks with a total of 6 jumps . 2e REP is the only regiment of the 11th Parachute Brigade which trains its own paratroopers . The Legionnaires spend their parachute training in Calvi TAP within the walls of the regiment . All other Army units are trained at the École des troupes aéroportées ( ETAP ) in Pau . Organization . The regiment is composed of around 1140 men organized into 8 companies and a reserve unit of 60 men . Some members of the 2e REP belong to the Commando Parachute Group - " Groupement Commando Parachutiste " which is a special forces unit of the 11th Parachute Brigade of the French army . While GCP members of other units wear the parachutist ' s red beret , the 2e REP GCP members conserves the green beret of the French Foreign Legion . Deployments . Operational deployments of 2e REP