The Inspiration - The French Foreign Legion

It was my sister Joanne who called me after watching a documentary on the French Foreign Legion. “You should see these guys, they’re so … romantic … so intense.” She was right. There is something deeply poignant about an army of dangerous men, none of them French, all from different backgrounds, each with his own story, each ready to give up everything – and I mean everything – to fight and die for a foreign country in some of the most hostile reaches of the globe, often just for the chance to be ‘rectified’ – to come out with an official new identity and French passport – if they survive.Who would do that? Why? And what if it was a tragedy of love that had brought one of them, in desperation, to the gates of Fort de Nogent in Paris, looking for a reason to keep living, for a place to forever bury his pain? 

These questions haunted me, and it was from them my Shadow Soldiers began to emerge – three disparate men, ex-Legionnaires with a blood bond, no pasts and armored hearts. They have all done their time with the “Legion of the Damned”. They have been ‘ rectified’ and have new identities – pasts forgotten, never spoken about. They have become consummate mercenaries – warriors-for-hire in the name of global good. And now they are handed one mission – a mission impossible that will forever change the shape of the world’s future.

But unless my men can find the courage to love again, unless each faces the very reason that drove him desperate to the gates of the ‘Legion of the Damned’, they will not be able to save one of the most powerful presidents on this earth – or his nation. They will not be able to save the future. Or themselves.

THE LEGION OF THE DAMNED

Apart from military buffs, the non-French public is generally unaware that the French Foreign Legion still exists. But the contemporary legion of foreigners now sees 10,000 hopeful foreigners volunteer annually with only 1,300 of them being accepted.

The Legion is currently an efficient lean and mean fighting force of 8,500 professional soldiers and 350 officers ready for action anywhere in the world on extremely short notice.
Recent deployments include Zaire, Chad, Central Africa, Cambodia, Lebanon, Somalia, the Gulf, Rwanda and Bosnia.

Few forces can handle the complexity of battle in Africa like the Legion. And few can compare to the Legion mindset where soldiers of many nations have to set aside differences and be prepared to die for a foreign nation. The bond that is formed is formidable, an unrivalled cohesion sealed with discipline, trust, solidarity and respect for tradition. And it is this mindset that shaped my three heroes, setting their course for the future.

LINKS:

Official recruiting site for the French Foreign Legion (la Légion étrangère vous offre une nouvelle chance pour une nouvelle vie…
French Embassy information on the Legion
Readers Digest article

Books:

Facts to the right gleaned from these books

LIFE IN THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION, by Evan McGorman

PARATROOPERS OF THE FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION By Howard R. Simpson

THE DAMNED DIE HARD by Hugh McLeave.

Facts about the Foreign Legion

1. The modern French Foreign Legion is a mobile “mercenary” fighting force of around 8,500 professional soldiers and 350 officers ready for action anywhere in the world on extremely short notice. Unlike the French army, the Legion has no civilian recruits – thus the French government does not have to worry about political, civilian or parental opposition to rapid deployment in overseas hotspots.
2. Legionnaires have a reputation of being some of the most skilled and dangerous soldiers on this earth. “Second to none”. The “elite of the elite”.
3. Established in 1831 by French King Louis Philippe to “bleed or shovel sand” in the conquest of Algeria, the Legion has often been the past resort for those who do not fit into society – refugees, revolutionaries, poets, princes, paupers and petty criminals have been welcomed with no questions asked about their pasts. This fact long-ago earned the force the nickname LEGION OF THE DAMNED – a place where men with no loyalty to country of kin came to fight and die for France as they opened up the French colonial empire.
4. To many the Legion has a “romantic ring of exotic adventure in a man’s world where the sun is hot the intermittent combat victorious and the cool desert evenings filled with passable wine and complaint females.” But the contemporary legion is a highly-efficient rapid-action deployment force ready at a moment’s notice for deployment anywhere in the world – from the humid jungles of central Africa, to the desiccated deserts of North Africa, to urban regions of the middle east, to some of the most inhospitable mountainous regions of the globe – a model in the new face war with it’s limited intensity conflict and terrorism.
5. More recent deployments include the Gulf, Rwanda, Bosnia, Congo, Lebanon, Somalia and Chad.
6. Recruits are offered official anonymity after serving an initial five-year contract (with an option to renew). This means they can be “rectified” — given an official new identity complete with new name (usually same initials), and a French passport. The past simply forgotten.
7. The French fighting unit is renowned for offering safe haven to ‘criminals’ and an opportunity for a man – only men are accepted — to reconcile with his past in exchange for five years of service.
8. The force is known for its austerity, deprivation and sacrifice.
9. Members are called on to make the ultimate sacrifice – possibly their lives – for a foreign government.
10. A man cannot join if he is found to be married – although he may try to hide it.
11. A Legionnaire is not permitted to marry in the first five years.
12. Passports and bank accounts must be surrendered. A man can keep nothing, apart from shaving gear, a towel, cigarettes, watch, wallet, a few dollars and an address book, or personal contact list. He cannot own a vehicle, or even a bicycle.
13. If a man wears glasses, is overweight, has high blood pressure, or suffers from other ‘medical’ conditions, his chance of acceptance into the force is slim to none. He MUST be in peak physical condition.
14. Interpol checks on done on applicants. Minor criminal offences are overlooked. But if there is no record and a man is accepted, and if police then come looking, the Legion may simply deny he is there. And has done so in the past, according to those who have served.
15. Most soldiers in the first five years contemplate desertion. Deserters are usually caught – the consequences not pretty.
16. On arrival in France, prospective applicants are advised to say they are going on holiday for no longer than a month, and they should have enough in travelers cheques to justify this.
17. A prospective soldier need not speak French – but he will have to learn very fast to communicate with a melting pot of foreigners in only French. A slip of paper shown at the gates of Fort de Nogent that says “Je veux m’engager a la Légion étrangère.” should suffice.
18. Today’s Legionnaire may be a scuba diver, a specialist in mountain warfare, the driver of an AMX tank, a computer technician or a free-fall parachutes’.
19. Only one woman has ever served officially in the Legion — Englishwoman Susan Travers, aka “La Miss,” now in her 90s. Her tale is told in her book, Tomorrow to be Brave. It’s a powerful romance in its own right. And true to Legion form, she joined to escape the pain of a broken love affair — with a married French General for whom she had been a personal driver in the 1930s.