A graduate of the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, he served as a paratrooper officer in the French Foreign Legion, and later as a mercenary in conflicts in Africa and the Middle East.

Noted for his fighting spirit and sense of command, he was admitted to the Military School of Saint-Cyr, which had changed its terms of recruitment to overcome the lack of officers in the French army at the end of World War II.

[1] After recovering from his wounds, Faulques saw action in the Battle of RC 4, when he was placed in command of the training platoon of 1er BEP, which lost nearly 80% of its force during the evacuation of Cao Bang in September and October 1950.

[1][2] Faulques and Captain Yves de La Bourdonnaye were given leave by army minister Pierre Messmer, and left to provide support to the Belgian-backed Katangese Gendarmerie against the Republic of Congo-Leopoldville,[1] joining hundreds of other British, Rhodesian, French, and South African mercenary and voluntary irregulars in replacing the 117 Belgian officers, and other white volunteers of Belgian descent.

According to Ian Goodhope Colvin who was an eyewitness, the attack was “needlessly brutal.”[12] In response to this, serious fighting soon broke out as Katanga’s self-declared President Moise Tshombe encouraged both Katangese civilians and foreign mercenaries to go on the offensive against UN forces.

Prior to this on the 5 April 1961, UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld criticised Belgian mercenaries for their service in Katanga and condemned Tshombe for turning the Katangese public against the United Nations.

At the end of the battle, 155 Irish soldiers under Commandant Pat Quinlan surrendered to Faulques and his 3,000–5,000 strong Katangan force on 17 September having run out of ammunition.

[1][18] When in 1962 violence began to flare up again,[19] Katangan gendarmes attacked peacekeeping forces in Katanga on 24 December in response to which, UN Secretary General Thant authorized the retaliatory offensive, Operation Grandslam.

[20][22] Faulques continued his mercenary career, alongside his friend Bob Denard, first being deployed in North Yemen[23] from August 1963 to the end of 1964, in support of MI6 (British intelligence),[1] then in Biafra on behalf of the French government.