Each commando was made of local volunteers called "partisans" (from the anti-communism and pro-French Tho, Nung and Hmong people (also known as the Mèo), minorities) as well as "returned" Viet Minh POW and was commanded by a young French Non-commissioned officer (units were named after them) with an assistant (adjoint), most of them were detached from GCMA units.
"the Black Tigers") whose leader, Adjudant-Chef Roger Vandenberghe (24, former 6e Régiment d'Infanterie Coloniale a.k.a.
6e RIC), was murdered in his sleep by Sous-Lieutenant Nguien Tinh Khoi - the former Commander of the Viet-Minh 308th Brigade 36th Regiment's Assault Unit, who had been captured by the French during the 1951 Battle of the Day River.
The GCMA name changed in the mid-1950s to be replaced with Groupement Mixte d'Intervention or GMI ("Mixed Intervention Group") as it was no more an airborne unit.
The GMI became the Groupement Léger d'Intervention or GLI ("Light Intervention Group") involving loyalist Muslims fighting with the French against the FLN rebels.