REPORTAGE
While a national tribute is to be paid Tuesday in Paris to the two French soldiers killed during the release of hostages kidnapped in Benin, in Montagny-les-Lanches (Haute-Savoie), the inhabitants of the village where Alain Bertoncello was born, One of the two soldiers is already preparing to honor his memory.
READ ALSO - Military killed in Burkina: only elite soldiers with an exemplary career
The parents of Alain Bertoncello, teachers in a high school, settled in this small village of 700 souls near Annecy, there are twenty years. It is therefore in this village, inevitably marked by the tragedy, that the young soldier and his two older sisters grew up. And from Saturday, the village mayor Monique Pimonow, former teacher, put the flags at half mast in front of the City Hall. "He went to the front, he was a real professional who died to save people," greets the architect at the microphone of Europe 1. "I found it very important to honor him in our own way."
The ashes of Alain Bertoncello will be transferred to Montélimar
It was also in Montagny-les-Lanches that the family decided to organize the funeral and cremation of Alain Bertoncello, a member of the Hubert commando, an elite unit of the French Navy. Several of his brothers in arms will be present, before his family goes to Paris on Tuesday, for the national tribute. An important tribute for the young soldier, says his father Jean-Luc: "If it can serve to give examples, so much the better".
"With my wife, a teacher like me, a girl told us 'I was having trouble making up my mind, it helped me in my choice', and now she wants to join the army," he says. he still. And to remember: "The day that Alain paraded on July 14 on the Champs-Elysees, it was an honor for him".
After this week of tribute and mourning, the ashes of the young man will be deposited in the family vault in Montélimar.