On 28 December 1949, Michel was called up for compulsory military service, later to join the first contingent as a volunteer. 

When the first contingent was returning home from Korea, Michel took another path, which brought him in November 1951 to Frankfurt, Western Germany. Here, the American Red Cross got hold of him and reported him as a deserter to local German police. After the Luxembourgish consulat was briefed about this incident, the Luxembourgish Army was about to dispatch a military police unit to Frankfurt to catch and repatriate the alleged deserter. However, Michel was already on his way to France, where he joined the Légion étrangère. He soon came to fight in the Indochinese War. On 3 May 1954, he was captured by the Việt Minh. Two months later, he was released from captivity and returned to Europe. He was released from the Légion étrangère on 21 January 1955.

From here on out, the only source mentioning his fate is an ad of the early 70s concerning a pub opening in Bilsdorf, to be run by the Morgiel-Wengler Family.  In the mid 70’s Michel disappeared again, legally abandoning his name for his middle name Franz. He apparently died in a veterans retirement home in Maurin, a suburb of Montpellier.