Our history
2009 : Creation of Airborne Command
AIRBORNE-COMMAND was officially created in June 2009 by Stéphane Hadjadje, after several experiences in reenactment of airborne troops, in order to combine the two dimensions of living memory and round canopy parachuting.
The first staff was made:
Jean-François BODET, vice-president
Samy CHÂTELET, vice-president
Sebastien LANGLOIS, secretary
Gabrielle MERIC de BELLEFON, treasurer
The goal was to reenact a real platoon of 1944 US paratroopers, as historically correct as possible in their equipment, structure, uniforms, and in their paratrooper skills, jumping from vintage aircraft with modern round canopy parachutes ( T10) but who look like the 1944 parachutes.
2010 : First jump!
June 4, 2010, AIRBORNE-COMMAND makes its first jump from a historical aircraft, Douglas C-47 Skytrain in Normandie.
It becomes the first French reenactment group to jump as a unit, and to jump in NORMANDY .
It also participates in the Normandy celebrations on a regular basis
August 14, 2011 : 1st Jump in Provence since 1944
AIRBORNE-COMMAND organizes and conducts the first commemoration airborne jump in Provence since 1944, on Drop Zone Le Luc, from a N2501 Noratlas from Noratlas de Provence
A jump into history
June 6, 2013 : Operation Neptune
The legendary jump by AIRBORNE COMMAND, in the night of June 6, 2013, from C-47 "Drag Em'Oot" on the Holdy Battery, near Sainte-Marie-du-Mont, Normandy, on a zone held by German reenactors blank firing on our jumpers.
August 13, 2013 : US Army Basic Jump Wings!
AIRBORNE-COMMAND invites the 173rd "Sky Soldiers" Airborne Brigade and jumps over Provence under its command. Our jumpers are granted the US Army Jump Wings.
August 2014 : 70th Anniversary of Provence Landings (Operation Anvil-Dragoon)
At Draguignan Military Cemetery, AIRBORNE-COMMAND receives the 509th Parachute Infantry Association Challenge Coin and is recognized as THE 509th PIB reenactment group n EUROPE.
509th PIA website
July 2015 : Change of Command at the 1er RCP
Airborne Command is among the Companies of the 1er Régiment de Chasseurs Parachutistes (first French parachute regiment in 1943), in 1944 uniforme, during the change of command ceremony.
June 2019 : 75th Anniversary of D-Day Normandy (Operation Overlord)
Airborne Command participates in the commemoration of D-Day in Normandy in a jump of 101 paratroopers on 3 C-47's with WWII Airborne Demonstration Team and ABCENTER.
August 2019 : 75th Anniversary of Provence Landing (Operation Anvil-Dragoon)
AIRBORNE-COMMAND jumps on Le Muy, as A/509th PIB since 2011, et on Fayence, as H/517th PRCT since 2016
January 2020 : 75th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge
Since 2015, AIRBORNE-COMMAND honors the memory of 551st PIB paratroopers and their last battle, at Rochelinval, Belgium.
2022: 78th Anniversary of Provence Landings (Operation Dragoon) with 1-509 Infantry Regiment Airborne
For the first time since 1944, a detail of 1-509 Infantry Regiment Airborne, from Fort Polk, Louisiana, attended the celebrations of Operation Dragoon, on the footsteps of the 509th PIB.
