Advice please..

[SixfootTwo]

Does anyone know anything about the French Foriegn Legion? Has anyone ever seen them or worked with them? Does anyone know their reputation, or have any type of opinion about them? What kind of work do they do? Do they fight a lot?

I am interested in joining up with them, and I was wondering if they had recruitment offices in Canada, or anywhere else in this hemisphere. Also, does anyone know of any websites dealing with the FFL besides the one offered by the French Embassy?

I know this is a bit off topic, but I figured you fellas would be the best folks to ask.

[whisky8]

6-2,
A few years ago I was in Bosnia and we had a Legionnaire Engineering unit located near us. They were a great bunch of guys, but they lived a very rough lifestyle.
A Legionnaire can retire after 15 years of service, which is about all the abuse someone’s liver can take. The Legionnaires I met all firmly believed in working hard, and playing hard.
Albeit they were an engineering unit, I’m sure that life in all the Legion units are not like that for everyone. The Legionnaires I had contact with were all NCOs; the first term lower enlisted soldiers were not allowed to socialize at all.
The Legion does appear to take care of their retirees fairly well. From what I was told by the NCOs, after retirement, a Legionnaire is provided for with French citizenship, housing, and retirement. I would recommend talking to a legitimate former member of the Legion before signing any papers and heading for France.

http://www.info-france-usa.org/america/embassy/legion/legion.htm


[This message has been edited by whisky8 (edited 10-05-2001).]

[RLK]

WTF? You're not serious are you?

[Scotty]

Where's Rick the Slugman for this one?

Scotty

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Some people call them "terrorists", these boys have simply been misguided

[Sharky]

Yep, E-mail Slug. He was in the Legion.

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F.I.D.O.

[Almighty Bones]

I was into info on the FFL a while back, dont ask why...

Anyways, I believe you have to go to France itself to enlist, paying for the plane ticket is your problem. If your denied for any reason, the impression I was under was, if you looked like sometihng they didnt like, you got the boot. They didnt need a reason to denie you. In that case, you just bought a vacation in France and I hope you have a return ticket. They have a lot of rules, I dont think you can own a car unless your like a Sergeant or equal to one in the FFL, if you go 2REP their airborne unit I believe you spend at least one maybe even 2 years on the island of Corsica without leaving. Dunno if this helps at all, it could be outdated info. Just a few things to think about.
I am definitly not a BTDT, take it with a grain of salt, I have seen half a dozen Websites about the FFL.
Rough Tough Life from my thoughts.


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http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/skull.gif Bones (NOT A BTDT)

[This message has been edited by Almighty Bones (edited 10-05-2001).]

[colmurph]

Back a few years ago I was on a "Fun Jump" in Guatemala with a bunch of guys. I ran into a Canadian fellow who was with the Canadian Airborne Regiment (Since disbanded for some obscure reason to BTDT's but perfectly clear to liberals) He was talking about leaving a gr8 carreer (He was a Captain) and joining the French Foreign Legion. I TOLD HIM THAT HE WAS A FLAMING ASS-HOLE!

Murph

[DIRSUP KORLING]

Any particular reason that the armed forces forces of your home country, which is about to go to war, doesn't interest you?

[SixfootTwo]

From the minute my mother expelled me from her uterus I have had three obsessions: Jesus Christ, alcohol, and fist fighting. By indulging myself between the three I have managed to disqualify myself from serving the land that nurtured me. Its a damn shame because I feel that I could be an asset to any of the services, especially the Army. I have a BA in religious studies,working knowledge of both French and Spanish, and a craving for disipline that only an Infantryman could appreciate. Unfortunatly for me, someone, somewhere, saw to it that people like me were not welcome in an organization that activly promotes my two out of my three obsessions.

Oh well. I blame Billy Klint. Its back to my beer, and then on to France!

[Frenchie]

From what I've understood Legionnaires are always operational and get very little peace. Any of you army guys can back this up or is it false? And the life is definately rough cause hey if you die it don't matter you can be replaced!

BTW we had a thread on the Legion a while back...

[This message has been edited by Frenchie (edited 10-06-2001).]

[XavieN]

Colmurph, good question.

Frenchie, if you and I are thinking about the same thread, that has been erased.

I also believe you have to go to France as well, read that somewhere. They have a recruiting office in the south of France (Nice?). Either way, I was thinking about checking out the FFL too, if the INS don't like me.

[XavieN]

http://www.frenchforeignlegion.org/database/data/dta024.asp

[Dax]

S'il vous plaît aller à http: //www.cervens.net/ pour trouver l'information de vrai legionaires. Vous remercier.

[Dax]

Je suis désolé. ..I a une question. Pourquoi faire vous est venu à un site militaire qui est principalement de NOUS les forces spéciales. N'importe quel moteur de recherche vous aurait envoyé à un meilleur domaine pour l'information. Le genre d'aller aimé à un site de légion étranger pour apprendre d'investir.

[XavieN]

Parfois... on veut l'intelligence de première main?
Bien question, Dax, je ne sais pas.

(Non, j'ai ne traduis avec Babelfish.)

[murphquake]

C'est interessante. Bon chance.
-bill

[This message has been edited by murphquake (edited 10-07-2001).]

[Dax]

Oui je consens. Je voudrais l'intelligence sur ce que je pensais de faire aussi. Mais je fais calme cherche des gens, comme le conseil les appelle "BTDT", et le site que j'ai posté est seulement cela. Ceci n'était pas une critique seulement pas n'importe quoi autrement.

[Frenchie]

I went to France over the summer and my uncle who's really into military stuff and he has a friend who was in the Legion but unfortunately I didn't have enough time to meet him...

[Slug]

Wow, I totally missed this thread.

Whisky 8,
When and where in Bosnia?

[This message has been edited by Slug (edited 10-13-2001).]

[Scotty]

What's up, Slug?! Sorry I missed the last batch of fun! Hope to get back to your side soon so I can offend your lady again. Oh, and bust caps. http://www.socnetcentral.com/ubboard/wink.gif

Hope you're doing well.

Scotty

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Some people call them "terrorists", these boys have simply been misguided

[Slug]

Hey Scotty,

Things are good on this end. We missed you last week-end. Lots of toys this time! But I think Joe put an end to that.

And my wife hasn't been offended since you left. Except by me of course.

See you next time,
Rick

[whisky8]

Slug,
That was in Mostar (French Sector) back in 97.

[Slug]

A bit after my time... There was an SF CWO who was at the radio station at Mostar around April 96. I dropped off a Foreign Legion tab that he had asked me for, but didn't have time to stick around to find out if he got it. Do you know who him? Always wondered if his guys got it to him.

[wcollar]

whisky8,
I believe that the unit was still in Mostar in March 98 when I passed through. We had a legionnaire who was supposed to translate English to Romanian for us but he didn't quite cut it. The conversation went something like:

Legionnaire: Hello.
Us: hello. So you speak English?
Legionnaire: Hello.
Us: You don't know any other words of English, do you?
Legionnaire: Hello.

I ended up having to listen to a mine lecture translated from English to French and then to Romanian. We ended up going to Sarajevo but I didn't find out about the Popeye's fried chicken there until it was too late. R/wcollar

[Chiefc]

Slug, FYI, I worked in Mostar right after the change from SFOR to IFOR. I was there about 5 months, redployed may 97 timeframe. I might know where to find the guy your looking for.

Chief

[Slug]

Chief,

Just read your response today.

Drop me a line

operationelle@hotmail.com