In 1944, aged 19, he joined the Resistance, and later on the Commando de Cluny which operated in a unit commanded by Captain Couturier (2nd RICM squadron) in January 1945, this Commando became the 4th Shock Battalion.
Upon the liberation of France, Staff Sergeant Marcel Chevrot was one of the first soldiers who volunteered to go and serve in the Far East. He joined the 6th Colonial Infantry Regiment and embarked on a two-year operation, between 1945 and 1947, in Indochina.
Upon return to France, and after undergoing training at Saint-Cyr-Coëtquidan, he obtained the officers’ rank. Marcel Chevrot chose the colonial parachute unit where his career as a soldier was exemplary.
He participated in various operations at Tonkin-(Grégoire - Phoque) from September to October 1950, and later on at Day. He was promoted to lieutenant on 4 May 1951 and return to metropolitan France at the end of his stay.
After his end-of-campaign leave, he was transferred to the 1st Colonial Parachute Commando Half Brigade in September 1952. When the unrests in Algeria erupted, he was transferred to the 8th Colonial Parachute Battalion in North Africa, and thereafter to French West Africa in the 4th BCCP at Dakar where he was trained as a bush commando and served in the 2nd response company in the Mauritanian Atar region in January and February 1957.
Repatriated to France at the end of his mission, he was send, after his CFC in the 3rd Colonial Parachute Regiment, to Sidi Ferruch, where he entered after training in CIPCC Arzew. On September 15, 1958, he became the commander of the first company of the 3rd RPC as lieutenant and was appointed captain on January 1, 1959. He subsequently expressed the wish to serve in the air platoon of the 10th Parachute Division, which he actually entered on November 1, 1959. After his mission in Algeria, he entered the 1st RPIma at Bayonne where he took over the command of the COI 1 on April 15, 1961.
Finishing the Algerian war as an ALAT observer, he joined the Special List and became commander of an ERM.
A considerable part of the retirement of this tireless military servant was consecrated to the Reserve activities and also to military preparation. As for his activities as director of the Marseille military reserve training centre, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and thereafter to colonel.
Colonel Chevrot died on February 2, 2010, at Marseille, at the age of 85. His funeral took place on Friday February 5, 2010, with several veterans in attendance. Despite having been paratrooper, he remained loyal to the RICM, his first unit. His incised tomb-slab bears testimony to this attachment.
Wounded twice on the battlefield, including one serious injury, commended ten times, twice in the Army Order, holder of the World War II and Overseas Operations Crosses and the Military Cross of Valour, this famous volunteer serviceman was Commander of the Legion of Honour and, by a decree of November 6, 2009, was promoted Grand Officer of the National Order of Merit.