Philippe Louis Edmé Marie François Erulin (5 July 1932 – 26 September 1979) was a senior French military officer.

He is best known as the Colonel Commandant of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment 2e REP, who directed the military intervention in Zaïre during the Shaba II conflict against rebels of the Congolese National Liberation Front (FLNC).

Because he was not only the one whom one can immediately trust, he was one of those rare men who are totally true - who give confidence in man's greatness, in his virtue.His brother Dominique stated that his parents gave them a very strict education and that at the death of his father, Philippe Erulin inherited a part of the family responsibilities.

[9] On July 9, 1976, Philipe Erulin assumed the command of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment at Calvi with the designated rank of Colonel.

On June 6, the President of Zaïre Mobutu Sese Seko (French: Mobutu Sese Seko) gave the accolade to colonels Yves Gras (French: Yves Gras) (military attaché of Zaire) and Philippe Erulin: the Franco-Belge intervention equally permitted to consolidate his regime.

The same journal confirmed that his brother Dominique (who associated later with Ante Gotovina) participated to the battle, while the latter had already left the army, following the Algerian War.

Assigned to the general staff headquarters of the French Army EMAT in July 1978, he died on September 26, 1979, from a ruptured aneurysm in Paris.

Philipe Erulin was cited at the orders of the Armed forces, on July 17, 1978: Commandant of the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment, conducted from May 19 to May 27 with a total success of airborne operations related to protection rescue of populations of Kolwezi (Republic of Zaire).

Dropped in difficult conditions, he trained his regiment vigorously on the assault and attained all objectives in less than an hour, liberating by a coup of this remarkable notion the imprisoned European populations held for a week and saving hundreds of human lives.

On May 21, 2008, the President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy pronounced the following at the occasion of a commemorative arms ceremony marking 30 years of exterior operations in the Honor courtyard of the Invalides: 30 years ago almost day to day, the legionnaires of the 2e REP commanded by Colonel Philipe Erulin, wrote at Kolwezi, one of the most beautiful pages of military history of our country, by taking part to an airborne operation of a grand scale, one of the most important surely since World War II...

The events of Kolwezi were moments of truths for all, from the Chief of the Armed Forces to the paratroopers on the ground engaged in operations theatre.

None abandoned (..).The extract by Général de division Jeannou Lacaze, Inspector of the Infantry, and future Chef d'état-major des armées (CEMA) during the pronunciation of Colonel Erulin's Military Honors: Madame, the Armed Forces also here in mourning, today, and in particular all these parachute units and the French Foreign Legion which your husband constituted one of the prow figures....Remain assured that, like you, like your children, we will keep of Philippe Erulin the souvenir of a generous man and also the image of the French officer which he incarnated all his life, and which he very well symbolized for millions of personnel in the military operation on Kolwezi to which his name will forever remain attached to.