Thank you Pixabar for the pics ; )
Ah the French ; I like to think of the World equivalent of America's California . . . You can be sure if the entire civilized world is doing one thing; then California and France are going to be exceptions ! ! !
Crazy buildings, crazy sexual ideas, crazy customs and a World Famous Crazy Military . . .
If your reading these words then you can be absolutely sure you will never get into the French Foreign Legion.
Simply because the Legion only takes healthy males who they can terrorize and brutalize into an effective fighting force. The logic is simple, find a fit man then destroy his will to live. Once a man has no independent purpose you rebuild that soul into your idealized fighting man.
The reasoning is quite correct, males are drawn to the unknown extreme experiences and the desire to belong to an elite force, adventure etc are things that footloose fancy free males seek. Regularly females complain about lack of connection, smoking drinking or many other male vices. In the FFL you join as a single man (even if you are married) you are given a new name and everything you need to learn to obey orders. Free health, clothing, food accommodation and alcohol ! ! !
Why you (reading these words) will never be accepted is you are privileged, you must be somewhere looking at the internet. This makes you unsuitable, the Legion is about making hard men even nastier, you get no internet, no money, no jewelry, no credit cards no personal loans no drivers licence. You get a new name that is your only name for the first year. Simply your past is forgotten and that includes your crimes, your wife and your family . . .
The perks are you get Real French Citizenship after a minimum of 5 years service, however if you are combat wounded you get French citizenship immediately; another bonus is the SIX weeks a year vacation ! ! ! The catch is you get sent and forgotten in some of the worst nastiest places on Earth. In fact the FFL is an awesome idea, most countries would like a extreme events highly trained military force that not even its own citizens care about. This means the FFL gets to go to one useless pointless conflict after another and risk life and limb for a country that cares nothing for them.
This is where the beatings come in; firstly the selection process has three goals, to find fit young men. To prevent weirdos like psychopaths etc from joining, and to find men with no other option of human prosperity. Thus if you enjoy a roof over your head and a WiFi connection the Legion does not want you. You must have absolutely no other realistic option except to join a bunch of rough fighters, yet be adaptable enough to fit in. Everything is about destroying your individuality, in fact the Legion fears many Westerners since they do not want these people reporting exactly how badly they have been treated within the Legion. Not that it would affect the outcome; the legion own you body and soul, the Legion simply prefer not to have to deal with the bureaucrats is all ! ! !
Once you are joined you earn about $1500 a month, but do not worry there is nothing to spend it on; you are routinely abused, bashed, brutalized or terrorized until the opportunity presents itself to die for France. All Officers are French, all language is French after five years you are given a new life. If you die in service well that is why you joined, literally; if you're wounded you get early citizenship ! ! !
So the process, get yourself to the main headquarters of the Legion; simply turn up at the front gate. No other way !!! show your passport, prove your not wanted internationally, then pass the physical, psychological and health tests. Age is 18 to 39 males only (trust me ladies, not even males like the FFL). No medical conditions; things like epilepsy, diabetes, HIV, TB or bad teeth will keep you out.
One lady has served in the FFL in Africa during WWII, around 40,000 legionnaires have died since the Legion was created in 1831. The Legion was created to removed highly trained fighters from France, simply they are to dangerous to keep at home so they simply shipped them overseas to fight France's silly pointless little conflicts.
Today the Legion is actually a highly trained tactically well equipped fighting force that is continually reported and embarrassed at how inhumane it treats its own soldiers. Bashing's and physical deprivation occur regularly and technology is officially useless unless it is for combat operations. But if you are desperate enough you can get to join the World's most mysterious legendary bunch of narcissistic alcoholics on the planet and become part of a corp of highly trained killers ! ! !
Just remember one night when your clutching a knife is some country you cannot spell the name of, in the desperately cold rain as mosquitoes disturb your sleep; always remember the bashings will continue until morale improves. Who knows if your lucky you will get wounded and get to go home to France ! ! !
http://xpatnation.com/things-you-dont-know-about-the-french-foreign-legion/
http://foreignlegion.info/joining/
http://xpatnation.com/questions-youve-never-asked-about-the-french-foreign-legion/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Foreign_Legion
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/17/french-foreign-legion-soldiers-trial-recruit-death
Who are you networking with ; )
I have been working in military for a while and in the private security sector. I met a bunch of former legionaries. All this post and its comments are a messy piece of crap and lies. While some infos are true regarding deprivation that accompany enrollment, most of the assertions are just negative allegations and dishonoring bashing accusations. I am sorry for you people.
I always find tales from the FFL intriguing. Too bad there;s not more movies about them. Probably the reality of it is impossible to put on the big screen.
Yes there is a certain mysticism about elite soldiers, in fact it is actually impossible to have elite soldiers . . .
Consider when a soldier goes to war it is simply tactics that gives that soldier the greatest chances of remaining uninjured, but also a lot of blind luck becomes involved in protecting soldiers on operational deployments. Put another way you can be a dumb conscript or an elite commando but when your body ends up in front of a bullet or explosion it is " game over ".
This same luck scenario applies to getting physically or psychologically fit ; your expected to push right up to your best, so the law of averages say you are far more likely to be injured out than to gain entry into elite fighting units. The authorities do not care simply because they get more candidates than they need, so they just get to accept the best who have not become irreparably damaged : )
But if you make it you get to do crazy crap no sane person would generally consider doing all the while getting to spend quality time bonding with other misfits are weird as you ; )
[ well not you yourself ] I am referring to extremist military types ! ! !
I never had the desire, no matter how romanticized it was in literature.
Well you were more a Water guy than an Earth guy; yes ?
Coast guard ? Thank You for your Service !
I actually considered all of the services, but yes I am more a water guy.
Yes, Coast Guard, though they never told me what coast I was going to be guarding, buzzards. Thank you for your support
LOL; where was it ?
I ended up all over the world. The Coast Guard was involved in every "exportation of democracy" that the U.S. engaged in. In 20 years I saw enough of them to belong to the VFW.
i had to look up VFW you should write a post : )
Thank You for your Service !
FFL is a crazy bunch of murderers,kilers,rapist,child abusers,you name it thy have done it
I think every army in the world has often done those things, but I do understand your point ! ! !
When you have almost nothing to lose law and ethics nor morals have much meaning . . .
I think you did not understand me . I was talking about people that joins to FFL , they are common criminals , there is no restriction for join. You can kill a man in front of the gate and still you can enter . Writen rules are writen rules for join are one thing but reality is another . They need animals in there . The bigger the better . For normal people killing is not normal. But they need people that will kill without hassitation without remorse . Those lunies are made more genocidal killings in Africa than we know.
Oh absolutely there are some average people who joined for the adventure or the extremism etc. But by and large these people are society's scum that you would never invite to a barbecue ! ! !
I think this is a great place to put such people as long as they are kept a long way away from people and on a very short controlled leash ! ! ! Getting treated like dirt is a regular occurrence in the FFL, probably not as regularly as some of the Legionnaires might deserve; but unlike conventional military units these soldiers are treated very badly.
The modern reality is with only two people getting accepted from every 10 applicants, even the FFL do not society's scum anymore. So while there are certainly very nasty people hiding out within the FFL the vast majority are rejected as not wanted and free to remain a plague on regular society because they are even to screwed up to be allowed into the FFL ! ! !
Ain't Life Grand . . .
lies + lies and legends and lies and bullshit. you people don t have any clue of what is on goin on and how this institution is based on true morale values and honor. shame on you.
in 1982 the British Army invaded to retake the Falkland islands, the British Army is possibly the most professional or disciplined military in the world if not then = almost ! ! !
After that military conquest came the court martials for soldiers who were reported to have committed serious crimes against civilians. It just happens in extreme events. Those events just tend to be much more extreme in locations that almost cannot be found on most maps.
There are eight thousand FFL soldiers and by necessity they are in todays modern world highly trained, highly equipped and serious bad arzes . . .
This is true simply because a LoT of western armies lose men to the FLL because they actually WANT to fight rather than sit around Waiting for some WaR ! ! ! For some humans this is nothing more than some extreme sport = killing ...
And another thing yes there are a great many professional and decent legionnaires, but who cares THAT is what they are supposed to be ! ! !
What is more important to talk about honest Judges or politicians or those Judges and politicians who take Bribes ???
For my money it is FaR more useful to talk about naraccistic or mentally deranged or substance abusing military personnel rather than the majority who are doing the right thing ...
Your entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to my opinion and personally I am very glad that the military are out there killing the enemy so I do not have to do it.
I just object to the military of many nations using civilians for target practice and to use up expensive military hardware so that suppliers can pad their profit margins, which is what most of high tech weapons do in todays modern world . . . = cost tax payers money to commit mass murder !
/ hugz ;)
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