 After the outbreak of World War II and the fall of France, he became an instructor with the rank of sergeant at a parachute school in Fez, Morocco.He then sailed to England for retraining, parachuted into Brittany as a saboteur in June 1939 and was wounded in the arm in a firefight at Loire.After the war Valentin again served as a parachute instructor and directed his attention toward his lifelong ambition.