First René worked as a tinsmith before joining the Luxembourg Army on 29 May 1951. Later, he joined the second contingent to fight in Korea. He was the youngest of all the Luxembourg volunteers, which earned him the nickname "Kid".

Until the 90s, very little information was known about his life. In 1995, however, his trace reappeared in the small village of Dellen. Here, he lived with the Meyers family and made his aliving as their farmhand. Around 2005, René moved to France, where he henceforth lived together with his son. Only two years prior to his death, in 2011, he managed to donate his entire military equipment, which he gathered over the years, to the National Military History Museum in Diekirch.