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The Expendables: Life in the French Foreign Legion (2012)
- ilamont 8y agoThat was a great read. Certainly removes any romantic notions about the Legion and its place in French society.
- dgivney 8y agoIf you're keen to remove the romance I can recommend 'Marching with the Devil' by David Mason. It's a raw first-hand account of the Legion during the late 80s and describes the author's boyhood dream of joining vs the reality of his situation in the Legion. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11683362-marching-with-the-devil https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11683362-marching-with-t...
- maxxxxx 8y agoI remember reading that they were used to clean up the sites of French nuclear tests. Not very romantic...
- saiya-jin 8y agoI met a guy in 90s who went through it - hardly remember anything but a story from some remote jungle about a friend who was on a guard during night, and they found him headless in the morning. Suddenly the military didn't appear to this boy so much...
- saalaa 8y agoFunnily enough, the Legion étrangère is not a romantic thing at all in France. I have in fact always found it odd that it was even a topic, mostly for Americans to be honest.
- ilamont 8y agoI think that owes a lot to Hollywood depictions, as the article mentions.
- bobochan 8y agoI was living in N’djamena, Tchad and there was a restaurant called Le Central on the main boulevard that officers from the Legion used to frequent. I was sitting at a nearby table finishing my bottle of Gala beer when they started to sing. I can’t remember the exact words, but it was one of the saddest laments that I have ever heard, essentially refraining that “I will die and you will never know my name. I fight, not for France, but for my brothers in the Legion.” They had no romantic illusions about their service.
- thinkingkong 8y agoBeen a few posts about the foreign legion here recently. Are people thinking about alternatives to sitting at a desk? It seems like the most extreme counter.
- samuell 8y agoI have found another French invention to do the job (of providing a break from the desk) without the brutal sides of deployed army life: Parkour. It's got it all: Exercise for the whole body, fresh air, multi-sensory interaction with your physical surroundings which really seems to help get the brain back in a more healthy mode than after a few days in front of a monitor.
- chaostheory 8y agoI think for former criminals who have finished serving their time, the Foreign Legion would be a chance for a fresh start if they chose to keep the new identity that the Foreign Legion assigns to them.
- presscast 8y agoThat's largely a thing of the past. You're more likely to be handed over to Interpol than anything else today. Also, HN-ers beware -- the FFL doesn't take people without military experience, anymore.
- norswap 8y agoThat doesn't seem to be true: https://www.legion-recrute.com/mdl/pages.php?id=2&titre=Les-conditions-d-engagement https://www.legion-recrute.com/mdl/pages.php?id=2&titre=Les-...
- presscast 8y agoIn practice, it is true. They have a long line of candidates, and will prefer those with experience. Source: am a reserve infantryman at 94th RI, 3rd Company. Regularly train with 2ème REP.
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