From Auvergne to the Ends of the Earth: Hecham's Journey in the Gendarmerie

The Mobile Gendarmerie

Between 2008 and 2018, Hecham serves as a mobile gendarme, with deployments in places such as St-Martin, New Caledonia, French Guiana, Corsica, Réunion, Martinique, and Guadeloupe. These varied missions allow him to strengthen his expertise and experience strong moments with an entourage sharing the same values as him, particularly in sports. 

During these years, and more specifically in 2013, Hecham obtained the Professional Intervention Instructor certification, thus attesting to his skills in combat, shooting and advanced intervention techniques. This qualification allows him to pass on his knowledge and experience to other gendarmes, a vocation he continues to pursue today.

He also tells us about his survival training in French Guiana with the GIGN unit which teaches him the basics of survival in hostile environments, but also backpack optimization for a specific duration (24, 48, 72 hours). He emphasizes the importance of simple but vital precautions thanks to valuable tips in tropical environments, for safety and comfort.

He shares with us the omnipresent risks of the jungle such as the need to place boots upside down in the evening, to avoid unpleasant encounters in the early morning, like tarantulas inside, the incident of a friend bitten by a bat for neglecting to close his hammock or using shaving foam on hammock ropes to keep ants away.

"These situations are crazy and a thousand miles away from our usual daily routines."

There, he participates in operations against illegal gold mining, missions that require extreme physical endurance, combining hours of navigation by dugout canoe and walking in unpredictable and difficult climatic conditions. These interventions highlight the need for rigorous physical preparation and the ability to intervene effectively to neutralize illegal sites within very short timeframes and with little evidence of the presence and organization of the gold miners. 

Even though local gendarmes inform them of the presence of these gold mining sites, these missions involve demanding tactical approaches requiring long marches through the jungle to locate and neutralize these clandestine sites, which they find abandoned most of the time upon their arrival. 

They are then responsible for destroying the equipment used for gold extraction to prevent these sites from being used again for these practices.