The man : Michel Fournier

Michel Fournier was born on May 4, 1944 in Allier, in the Auvergne region in the heart of France. Circumstances of life forced him to quit elementary school to work on a farm, while continuing to hit the math and French books every evening. “I opened my heart one day to my teacher, Mr. Guillamin, about my dreams of flying and parachute diving. He lent me some of his books to keep working on the gaps in my schooling.” Fournier revealed himself a high-performance athlete in many disciplines.
He holds numerous national titles in the pentathlon, in Olympic firearms marksmanship, in cross-country map reading and orientation courses, in marathons and half-marathons, and of course in parachutism.

Quickly drafted, he was a “simple soldier” in North Africa. “But there, too, fortune smiled upon me: I ran into a colonel from my part of the country, who gave me a push to continue studying on my own, having left after the end of elementary school, and who sent me to special military training school.”

Here Michel came in first among 74 candidates. He volunteered for a very quick path to NCO (sergeants) school, where he scored second out of 47. From there he finished the first half of his high school education. Thereafter came invitations to OCS (officer candidate school) and to the Staff College for officers.