A military privilege, the ceremony took place this Friday morning in the enclosure, prohibited to civilians, of Fort Pipaudon. It is on this highest point of Vieil Évenos, which at more than 400m reveals a grandiose panorama, that the takeover of command of the departmental gendarmerie company of La Valette-du-Var by squadron leader Fayçal took place. Chidiac. He takes over from Captain Thierry Eymery, called to new duties after four years in this position.
From engineer to ballistics expert
After the official protocol of its installation, as well as a presentation of rewards to several gendarmes who have recently distinguished themselves, a more informal moment around a buffet brought together the many people present, including local elected officials, parliamentarians and even the public prosecutor.
This is where Colonel Grégory Goumain (who took charge of the Var gendarmerie group last month) spoke about “quite atypical route” by Fayçal Chidiac… starting with the charade: “You grew up in the 20th arrondissement of Paris and, yes, you are a PSG supporter.” Amused boos among colleagues…
“France from top to bottom”
More seriously, the colonel then spoke of his “first professional life before the gendarmerie as a civil engineer”. Then the “search for the common good” and the “taste of action” which made him take a turn: upon leaving the officers’ school, squadron leader Chidiac was recruited by the Judicial Unit of the National Gendarmerie, assigned to the ballistics department of the criminal research institute (investigations, assistance autopsies, study of weapons and ammunition, legal reconstructions, etc.) for around ten years. He notably carried out a study on non-lethal weapons and worked on several publications, some of which “refer” Today.
He has served as a judicial expert in courts, notably in Guyana. Man “laboratory” as much as “field”Fayçal Chidiac a “traveled the length and breadth of France, close to the crime scenes”and also went “in Ukraine in 2022 in a degraded context as technical manager of a group of multidisciplinary experts”.
For the rest of his career, Colonel Goumain expects him to be “closer to the men and women who make up the company” which he now directs “and as close as possible to our partners here”. “I know you are equipped to succeed”his superior finally told him.
