These paras served in the Belgian 5th Special Air Service which was under the command of the famous Eddy Blondeel.

The regiment consists of the two remaining Para-Commando battalions (3Para, 2Commando), the Special Forces Group (Belgium), a support unit of the Communication & Information Systems Group, the training centre for Parachutists and the training centre for Commandos.

From 1953, the commandos participated actively in the "African period"[clarification needed] with numerous detachments destined for the base at Kamina (BAKA) in the Belgian Congo.

[2] After the riots of January 4, 1959, the 2nd Commando Battalion was dispatched urgently to Léopoldville where it was stationed for about a month.

A cadre party and other elements later formed the 4th Commando Bataillon which was stationed at Kitona in Bas-Congo.

In July 1960, 3,000 para-commandos and five independent reserve companies intervened in a number of Congolese cities to facilitate the evacuation of Europeans and the disarmament of Armee Nationale Congolaise mutineers.

[3] On 24 November 1964, with the operation Dragon Rouge, five US Air Force C-130 transports dropped 350 paratroopers of the Para-Commando Regiment onto the airfield at Stanleyville.

In late November, 1985, around 1,000 Paracommandos comprising six companies of the 2nd Commando and 3rd Parachute Battalions[5] were deployed to man static and mobile security posts around government buildings in Brussels, amidst a then-ongoing terrorist campaign by the Far-left Communist Combatant Cells (this being during a relatively violent period of militant and criminal activity in Belgian history; Les Années de plomb).

[6] Elements of the 3rd Para Battalion were deployed to Iran in 1991 to help Kurdish refugees fleeing from Iraq following the Gulf War.

Although these battalions refer to themselves as either commando or paratroopers, recruits have received the same training and perform the same duties.