jsharps1965 wrote:The legion has alot of history behind it, alot of defeats from mexico, morroco, vietnam, 2nd world war when they fought each other and also alot of victories. The thing is, it was the spirit of the men that joined, although it was a way out for many criminals, that kind of got phased out after algeria, yes they still accepted people with records but not serious records.Whilst I was waiting in aubagne for acceptance in 1985, one of the guys I became freindly with got pulled out of our dorm and thats the last we saw of him. He had been on the run from morroco and decided to hide in the legion but they do thorough checks on people now and it came to light that he had actually killed a police officer in some kind of drug op, and that was that.Remember after the war alot of German SS troopers escaped to the legion, they were a big influence on legion life and training for quite some time after, vietnam which was indo china then, (the book called 'devils gaurd' is about their operations in indo china just after the war so if you get a chance read it there is alot of tactics the germans put to good use over there cause the french generals were struggling,), algeria during their fight for independahce and a few other little wars, now they have all died off now, though I did get to meet a couple of the old warriors, cause thats what they were, I personnaly think maybe france wants rid of the legion now, its an embarassment to them so they let the standards slip so fewr and fewer join, then at the end whats the point to keep the legion if we have units with native french, it will be a sad day when it happens but the spanish got rid of their legion not that long ago for the same reason. Don't forget that there is a big language barrier at the startof your life in the legion, but that aside I worked along side Israely defence force personnel, SDF personnel, Rlf(now disbanded)rodesian light inf, former brits who went through NI in the 60' and 70' also ex vietnam vets US mercs from angola etc Aden vets so there was a hell of alot of experience to learn from and they had pride in what they did. I learnt more off these men than I did from the french military doctrine.oh so many memories.good and bad and s**t but
Very interesting mate. Are the Legion open to ideas on how to do things and experinces from ex squaddies from other armies. Or do they have a know all attitude.
