French Foreign Legion

A very good mate of mine served in the Legion in the early to mid 80's.
Basically if your fit and healthy, have no major criminal convictions and pass a basic fitness and aptitude test you have a good chance of getting in.
5yr contract, tough life, good chance of deploying to some hotspot somewhere and French citizenship after you successfully complete your first contract.
Pretty much everything in a nutshell.
Quite a few good websites and forums out there if you want to look.
 
I knew a man who, as a young, dumb boy, signed up in the 50's and served in North Africa. He said that everyone picked up a little of each other's language. He said that there were mostly Germans at that time and that you were guaranteed anonymity from the time you signed up. The Officers were French and no part of the Legion could serve in France.

Shortly after he joined, the Korean war ended and because of some turncoats, President Eisenhower had a law passed that if anyone served in a foreign military, their citizenship was revoked. Bill, my friend, said that it just got too tough and he escaped and found himself in Cairo, a man without a Country. Arabs and French were after him and he knew he was dead either way. His Mother was finally able to get a Congressman to make an exception for him because he was too young to serve when he joined.

That is the way it was related to me by the person and I haven't thought of the subject for years so I'm not much of a source.
 
Missileer said:
I knew a man who, as a young, dumb boy, signed up in the 50's and served in North Africa. He said that everyone picked up a little of each other's language. He said that there were mostly Germans at that time and that you were guaranteed anonymity from the time you signed up. The Officers were French and no part of the Legion could serve in France.

Shortly after he joined, the Korean war ended and because of some turncoats, President Eisenhower had a law passed that if anyone served in a foreign military, their citizenship was revoked. Bill, my friend, said that it just got too tough and he escaped and found himself in Cairo, a man without a Country. Arabs and French were after him and he knew he was dead either way. His Mother was finally able to get a Congressman to make an exception for him because he was too young to serve when he joined.

That is the way it was related to me by the person and I haven't thought of the subject for years so I'm not much of a source.
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well hopefully he returned okay. on the other hand we have desertions. they actually give you tips on how to do this. apparently they want to get rid of you quickly.

Tips On Deserting

"If you decide you've had enough and choose to desert, there are a number of steps you can take to improve your odds of not being caught. The easiest means of deserting is to wait until your unit is granted leave. You should then have at least two weeks to find a way out of France."
 
Missileer said:
I knew a man who, as a young, dumb boy, signed up in the 50's and served in North Africa. He said that everyone picked up a little of each other's language. He said that there were mostly Germans at that time and that you were guaranteed anonymity from the time you signed up. The Officers were French and no part of the Legion could serve in France.

Shortly after he joined, the Korean war ended and because of some turncoats, President Eisenhower had a law passed that if anyone served in a foreign military, their citizenship was revoked. Bill, my friend, said that it just got too tough and he escaped and found himself in Cairo, a man without a Country. Arabs and French were after him and he knew he was dead either way. His Mother was finally able to get a Congressman to make an exception for him because he was too young to serve when he joined.

That is the way it was related to me by the person and I haven't thought of the subject for years so I'm not much of a source.
Click to expand...

Very interesting! :)
 
FFL

Not interested in joining..no way! Cant! My father in law was KIA in 1952, he was from Morroco, part french part morrocain. He was from Agidar, killed in central viet nam in 1952. Stationed in Germany at the time married a German woman. At that time I believed france occupied Germany. He was someone who would take natives from the jungle and train them to fight in the viet nam war. About all I know
 
When my father was in the USMC he was stationed with the FFL and he said they were crazy...HE'S A MARINE...so that gives me some idea as to the amount of respect for them...I hate how the french citizens our officers and not grunts...or something like that. I think they should have a link to the other boys. I am 25% french(grandma is 100% moved to the states in 55 or 52) So I feel I have the right to criticize them frenchies....=D
 
How do you mean crazy? Or what do you mean by crazy? And does anyone know why guys go into the Legion? Even Americans?
JAS
 
Sorta like marine crazy....Thats what me pops says. I guess they were willing to do anything for any reason...or some such. I don't mean crazy as in insane...its a complement :twisted:
 
I know that the Swedish Norbat 2 (dont know which rotations but one of the first) that was stationed in Bosnia was supposed to be reinforced by Canadians but after a while they considered the Swedes and the situation to be so dangerous that they decided that they couldn't stay, the UN later reinforced the Swedes with the only force eaqualy insane which was FFL, which worked better, there was a equal level of crazyness between the two heh.

Sweden has after that worked close togather with FFL several times.
 
migidarra said:
Sorta like marine crazy....Thats what me pops says. I guess they were willing to do anything for any reason...or some such. I don't mean crazy as in insane...its a complement :twisted:
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Can they be compared to US special forces? And what makes them want to join??
 
The cynical mission would be to fight and die for Frances foreign policy.
They seem to deploy to some pretty crappy corners of the world.
 
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